Hackers publish Vestas data following cyber attack
The move suggests the company didn’t comply with the hackers' ransom demands
Hackers behind last month’s cyber attack on Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, have published a portion of the compromised data online.
That's according to a statement published by the company, in which it advised customers and business partners to “stay vigilant” as there's a possibility that their personal data may be misused.
The stolen data includes information embedded in identification documents such as passports, birth certificates, work permits, and driver’s licenses. In some cases, the cyber criminals managed to obtain social security numbers, medical certificates, injury reports, and bank account information.
Vestas stated that “not all employees and business partners of Vestas have been affected by the cyber security incident and the majority of the compromised personal data is not of a sensitive nature”.
This includes information embedded in CVs, such as names and contact details, emails, phone numbers, country of residence, education, and professional skills, as well as company documents including contracts and salary information.
Vestas said that it will notify the victims of the breach “if it is assessed that this is appropriate given the risk to such individuals”.
RELATED RESOURCE
2021 Thales cloud security study
The challenges of cloud data protection and access management in a hybrid and multi cloud world
IT Pro has reached out to the company for further information but hadn't received a response at the time of publication.
The attack, which took place on 19 November, forced Vestas to shut down its IT systems for two days “as a precaution”. The company has not named the hackers behind the attack, nor whether the cyber attack involved ransomware.
However, the news of data being published online suggests that that the company didn't comply with the hackers' ransom demands.
This is in contrast to a similar incident involving US natural gas provider Colonial Pipeline, which saw the company comply with the DarkSide hacking group’s demands and pay the $4.4 million (£3.1 million) ransom. CEO Joseph Blount said that he was aware that the decision was “highly controversial”, yet added that “it was the right thing to do for the country”.
“I didn't make it (the decision) lightly. I will admit that I wasn't comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this,” he told the Wall Street Journal in May.
-
UK’s AI Hardware Plan welcomed by industry as government bets big on domestic chip capabilitiesNews With a focus on British chip firms, the plans include £750 million for the development of a new national AI supercomputer
-
SecurityHQ names Aaron Hambleton as product and services chiefNews Industry veteran will lead product and service innovation across the provider's cybersecurity portfolio
-
Ransomware cartels are fragmenting into volatile splinter groups, warns Met Police cyber chiefNews Commoditized "cyber crime bazaars" and AI data mining are forcing law enforcement to rewrite its playbook
-
New ransomware threat group, The Gentlemen, has become one of the most active ransomware operators, accounting for 10% of all attacksNews NTT researchers warn that the RaaS group is leveraging SystemBC malware to establish covert tunnelling, evade detection, and support rapid lateral movement across enterprise environments
-
Instructure chose to a pay ransom following the Canvas cyber attack – research shows more than half of security leaders would follow suitAnalysis Opting to pay ransoms creates huge risks for enterprises – you’re relying on the word of criminals
-
Ransomware negotiator sentenced for role in major cyber crime groupNews Deniss Zolotarjovs was a key player in a group associated with Conti
-
Threat actors ditch ‘spray and pray’ attacks in shift to targeted exploitationNews A dip in ransomware volumes points to a more targeted approach focused on vulnerability exploitation
-
Security leaders overconfident about ransomware recovery
News Few manage to recover all their data, and many experience business disruption
-
German authorities want your help finding the hackers behind GandCrab and REvilNews Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin and Anatoly Sergeevitsch Kravchuk are believed to have made millions from ransomware as a service schemes
-
The rise of teen hackers ‘makes for a good headline’, but cyber crime activities peak later in life
News With family responsibilities and mortgages to pay, it's not teenagers dishing out malware or carrying out cyber extortion
