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.
-
Is the traditional MSP service desk dead?Industry Insights AI and B2C expectations are reshaping B2B service desks and MSP strategy
-
From phone calls to roll calls: 3CX has the answerHow Yellowgrid, a 3CX Platinum distributor, has taken advantage of 3CX Phone System’s customisable nature to create a time-saving solution already embraced by over 100 UK schools
-
Average ransom payment doubles in a single quarterNews Targeted social engineering and data exfiltration have become the biggest tactics as three major ransomware groups dominate
-
BlackSuit ransomware gang taken down in latest law enforcement sting – but members have already formed a new groupNews The notorious gang has seen its servers taken down and bitcoin seized, but may have morphed into a new group called Chaos
-
Google cyber researchers were tracking the ShinyHunters group’s Salesforce attacks – then realized they’d also fallen victimNews In an update to an investigation on the ShinyHunters group, Google revealed it had also been affected
-
Nearly one-third of ransomware victims are hit multiple times, even after paying hackersNews Many ransomware victims are being hit more than once, largely thanks to fragmented security tactics
-
75% of UK business leaders are willing to risk criminal penalties to pay ransomsNews A ransom payment ban is a great idea - until you're the one being targeted...
-
The Scattered Spider ransomware group is infiltrating Slack and Microsoft Teams to target vulnerable employeesNews The group is using new ransomware variants and new social engineering techniques - including sneaking into corporate teleconferences
-
Hackers breached a 158 year old company by guessing an employee password – experts say it’s a ‘pertinent reminder’ of the devastating impact of cyber crimeNews A Panorama documentary exposed hackers' techniques and talked to the teams trying to tackle them
-
The ransomware boom shows no signs of letting up – and these groups are causing the most chaos
News Thousands of ransomware cases have already been posted on the dark web this year
