Bose admits ransomware attack exposed employee data
Hackers managed to obtain HR data including "compensation-related information" during the March attack
Bose has confirmed that it had experienced a data breach, having fallen victim to a ransomware attack in early March.
The audio equipment manufacturer admitted to the incident in a letter sent to the office of the Attorney General at the New Hampshire Consumer Protection Bureau last week. In the filing, the company's legal representative said that Bose had "experienced a sophisticated cyber-incident that resulted in the deployment of malware/ransomware across [its] environment". The incident is only known to have affected Bose's US systems.
"Immediately upon discovering the attack on March 7, Bose initiated incident response protocols, activated its technical team to contain the incident, and hardened its defenses against unauthorized activity," the letter continued.
In late April, the company's investigation found that hackers managed to obtain HR data "relating to six former New Hampshire employees", including "name, Social Security Number, and compensation-related information".
Although Bose's investigators could not find "evidence to confirm that the data contained in these files was successfully exfiltrated", the company was also "unable to confirm that it was not".
According to Bose's representative, the company has taken steps to further investigate the data breach by cooperating with the FBI as well as employing "experts to monitor the dark web for any indications of leaked data".
The company has also sought to mitigate the chances of a future cyber attack occurring by enhancing its server and endpoint security, performing "detailed forensics analysis on the impacted server to analyse the impact of the malware/ransomware", and "enhanced monitoring and logging to identify any future actions by the threat actor or similar types of attacks".
It also confirmed that the malicious files used during the attack, as well as "newly identified malicious sites and IPs linked to this threat actor", had been blocked.
Bose Media Relations Director Joanne Berthiaume told IT Pro that the company had not made "any ransom payment".
The identity of the hackers is not known, but the incident follows in the footsteps of several other recent high-profile ransomware attacks that targeted Colonial Pipeline, as well as the Irish and New Zealand health services.
-
Startup founders lament 'regulatory friction' despite EU simplification effortsNews Entrepreneurs are spending a fortune on compliance, and it’s forcing some to consider relocating
-
Dropzone AI expands EMEA channel reach with QBS Software distribution dealNews The exclusive partnership will bring the vendor's AI-powered SOC platform to MSSPs and VARs across the region
-
‘Every hour ransomware goes undetected drastically increases its potential blast radius’: Hackers are breaching networks and laying low for longer – and nearly half of firms don’t realize until data is stolenNews An ExtraHop survey found more intrusions are going undetected, leading to longer dwell times
-
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
