Tag Archive for: 81m

Orbit Chain tracking down hackers after the new-year eve $81M hack

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In what appears to be a 2024 bad start, Orbit Chain, a platform specializing in cross-chain transactions, suffered an $81 million hack on Dec-31-2023 at 08:52 PM UTC.

Despite the setback, the platform is taking robust measures to address the situation, involving collaborations with Korean authorities, security agencies, and law enforcement globally. Here are the key details of the hack and the proactive steps taken by Orbit Chain to recover the funds and secure its ecosystem.

Orbit Chain collaborating with Korean National Police and KISA

Orbit Chain swiftly responded to the hack by initiating a collaborative effort with the Korean National Police Agency and KISA. In addition, the platform’s development team has engineered a specialized system for investigation support and cause analysis.

This collaborative approach with Korean authorities aims to enhance the investigation’s comprehensiveness and proactiveness. Discussions are also underway for close cooperation with domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies.

This collaborative effort signals a dedicated pursuit of justice, leveraging the expertise of both technology professionals and law enforcement agencies. By aligning forces with government entities, Orbit Chain seeks to bring the perpetrators to justice and reinforce the security of its cross-chain platform.

On January 2, 2024, the Orbit Chain team updated its community on X stating that it was also trying “to communicate with the attackers of the Orbit Bridge.” They said that they “delivered a second message to them (Jan-01-2024 01:08:35 PM +UTC).”

Besides collaborating with law enforcement agencies, the Orbit Chain team is urging the community and the wider Web3 ecosystem to disseminate information about the incident. This community-driven approach is seen as a strategic move to heighten awareness and potentially aid in the…

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Ryuk ransomware recovery cost us $8.1m and counting, says Baltimore school authority • The Register

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An organisation whose network was infected by Ryuk ransomware has spent $8.1m over seven months recovering from it – and that’s still not the end of it, according to US news reports.

The sum, spent by Baltimore County Public Schools, will doubtless raise some eyebrows and the public breakdown of the costs will be eye-opening for the infosec industry and potential corporate ransomware victims alike.

A spreadsheet obtained by Fox 45 News Baltimore, a TV station, revealed the $8.1m spending and also broke it down into individual line items.

Of the full sum, $2m alone was spent on “ERP cloud transition and recovery” with provider CGI. A Dell (VMware) Carbon Black cloud-based endpoint security licence for one year of Windows protection came in at $699,298, while $606,648 was spent on device monitoring and tracking.

Just $2m of the $8m spend was covered by insurance, the spreadsheet showed, also noting $11,500 in ransomware negotiation costs. There was no line item explaining whether a ransom was paid or if so, how much it was.

As we reported when it first happened, the BCPS network was infected by Ryuk ransomware in November last year. 115,000 children were unable to access remote classes (being held online due to the pandemic) and were cut off from school for a week while administrators rebuilt critical systems.

The attention of news outlets moved on after a few days (possibly a result of BCPS’ $50,000 spend with FTI Consulting on PR advice), but the enduring tech and financial damage is still being felt months later.

Infosec firm Sophos said in April that the average cost of getting over a ransomware attack is $2m, a sum that “has more than doubled in a year”. Last year French-headquartered IT outsourcer Sopra Steria said a Ryuk attack was set to cost it between 40 and 50 million euros after “a previously…

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