Hackers post over 4000 stolen SEPA files following ransomware attack
It has been reported that cyber criminals who stole thousands of digital files belonging to environmental regulator SEPA have published them on the internet. The public body had about 1.2GB of data stolen from its digital systems on Christmas Eve. SEPA rejected a ransom demand for the attack, which has been claimed by the international Conti ransomware group. Contracts, strategy documents and databases are among the 4,000files released. The data has been put on the dark web – a part of the internet associated with criminality and only accessible through specialised software.
Full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55757884
Commenting on the news is cybersecurity expert Hugo van der Toorn, manager offensive security at Outpost24:
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“As you are dealing with individuals, or collectives of people, with very little ethics you cannot trust them to not blackmail you again after they digitally broke in and stole your data already. So although paying ransom may seem like an ‘easy way to recovery’, you can never be certain to ever regain access to your files and your network will always remain a hostile territory. Even paying the ransom would not have guaranteed that the information would not get leaked, or that a higher ransom amount is asked at a later stage.
However painful the recovery may be, this seems like the right response by SEPA. It probably has been a difficult decision, but it might very well be the safest way forward: To start from scratch, slowly recover from backups and ensure things are setup securely.”
If you would like further commentary or to speak with the expert, feel free to get in contact.
Rohit Chavda
Account Manager
Eskenzi PR Ltd.
rohit@eskenzipr.com
