Tag Archive for: Hostage

Hackers hold city of Augusta hostage in a ransomware attack

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BlackByte group has claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack on the city of Augusta in Georgia. 

The ransomware group has posted 10GB of sample data for free and claimed they have a lot more data available. 

“We have lots of sensitive data. Many people would like to see that as well as the media. You were given time to connect us but it seems like you are sleepy,” the screenshot shared by security researcher Brett Callow, who is also a threat analyst at Emsisoft. 

“We will help you to wake up. Here is a leak of 10GB of your data and very soon there will be much more free to everyone. The clock is ticking,” the ransomware group said. 

In another post on a hacker forum, the group claimed that it has additional data that they want to sell. 

Augusta is a city in Georgia, near the South Carolina border with a population of over 200,000 as of 2021. The city of Augusta has acknowledged that it began experiencing technical difficulties on May 21 and that it resulted due to unauthorized access to its system. 

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FOX54 EXCLUSIVE: Augusta “held hostage” in ransomware attack

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Augusta, commonly called the Cyber City, is home to Fort Gordon’s U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence, overseeing training for Cyber, Signal Corps, and Electronic Warfare. The Georgia Cyber Center also calls Augusta home, creating a hub for cybersecurity in the CSRA. The city has been named several times among the nation’s top Digital City Governments by the Center for Digital Government. According to a 2021 press release by the city, “the recognition spotlights
cities utilizing technology to tackle social challenges, improve services, encourage citizen engagement, strengthen cybersecurity, and enhance transparency.”

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Ransomware is the biggest malware threat — avoid hackers holding your data hostage

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Ransomware is an ongoing scourge, with the nasty malware impacting users and large-scale organizations alike. We’ve seen AMD and Intel suffer from data leak in an active Gigabyte ransomware attack, Microsoft dealing with a massive email hack, and Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projekt Red under fire with a nasty security breach — and that’s just in 2021.

As Check Point Research (CPR) has discovered, the surge of ransomware attacks kicked off in the third quarter of 2020, with a 50% increase in daily average attacks compared to the first half of that year. Have these attacks subsided? Not a chance. In fact, ransomware skyrocketed to 93% in 2021, and attacks — like Foxconn production being disrupted — continue to this day. Yikes.

The intrusive software can be seen as the worst form of malware, as sometimes, all it takes is a simple phishing email to have your files, documents, and PC locked down, only to be set free if users comply with ridiculous ransom demands. The good news is there are a few ways to evade any dire data hostage situation.

What is ransomware? 

Ransomware is extortion software used by hackers to deny access to files on a victim’s device, encrypting user data and demanding a ransom payment in order to gain access to them. These attackers often threaten users with leaking the data they’ve locked down, and, in some cases, even let a little slip to the public to let victims know they mean business.

Think of it as someone changing the lock to your home and holding the only keys to get it open again. If a ransom is paid off, hackers will release the decryption key for users to gain access to their files again. These threat actors may not even have big plans to use this data in any way, but once they receive payment, they’ve won.

Other forms of ransomware have attackers effectively stealing data (a.k.a data theft), giving them full reign to leak this data online. What’s worse, users may not know what data has been stolen, allowing hackers to manipulate what data they are threatening to leak and enforcing fear, all to make sure they get the cash they demanded. 

(Image credit: Zephyr_p/Shutterstock)

As an example, during the CD PROJEKT Group data breach, the…

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Groups of hackers are said to be holding Bandai Namco hostage for ransom – Bestgamingpro

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Hacker organisation ALPHV has purportedly hacked Bandai Namco, according to vx-underground, a Twitter account that analyses malware. The organisation claims to have “ransomed” the publisher by breaking into the company’s network security.

The term “ransomware” refers to computer malware that encrypts all of the data on a system or systems it infects. The information is then returned to its rightful owners when the ransom has been paid. In recent years, this kind of extortion has become a common practise.

It’s not the first time a gaming firm has been targeted by ransomware. In 2020, Capcom was hacked, followed by assaults on Electronic Arts and CD Projekt Red in the following year. The ransom was declined by all three businesses.

It’s important to keep in mind that in these assaults, we’re not only talking about video games. As much information as possible is gathered and encoded by the hacking groups. In the past, these assaults have resulted in the disclosure of private information such as employee details, corporate financials, and more.

Bandai Namco has been contacted for comment and will be included in any updates to this article.

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