MOVEit Breach Exposes Data To Clop Ransomware Attack
The US government has verified that a number of governmental institutions have been the target of Clop ransomware attacks that took advantage of a popular file transfer tool’s security flaw.
A senior CISA officer informed reporters later on Thursday, citing estimates from private analysts, that “several hundred” businesses and organizations in the US may also be impacted by the hacking campaign in addition to US government entities.
Over the lengthy Memorial Day holiday in the United States, the attacks began on May 27. The Clop ransomware group claimed to have stolen data from hundreds of businesses.
This week, Clop started using a data leak website to blackmail businesses by publishing their identities there and threatening to start releasing data if a ransom is not paid.
The claimed responsible ransomware gang, Clop, is known to demand multimillion-dollar ransoms. However, the senior official informed reporters at a background briefing that no demands for ransom have been made of federal agencies.
The US business Progress Software, which created the software used by the hackers, said it had found a second weakness in the system and was trying to remedy it when CISA responded.
“Upon learning that records from two DOE entities were compromised in the global cyberattack on the file-sharing software MOVEit Transfer, DOE took immediate steps to prevent further exposure to the vulnerability and notified the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The Department has notified Congress and is working with law enforcement, CISA, and the affected entities to investigate the incident and mitigate impacts from the breach,” a Department of Energy spokesperson told TechCrunch
According to CISA Director Jen Easterly, who told reporters that the intrusions had not had any “significant impacts” on federal civilian agencies, the hackers have been “largely opportunistic” in utilizing the software hole to access networks.
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The disclosure increases the number of victims of a massive cyber attack that started two weeks ago and has affected state…
