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World's biggest meat processor JBS pays $11 million to ransomware gang
Thursday, June 10, 2021
The White House has said that a criminal organization behind the incident is "likely based in Russia." The FBI described the group as "one of the most specialized and sophisticated" in the world.
Their potentially lucrative nature has seen ransomware become a favorite among hackers in recent years. “The recent multi-million ransom payments is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Many companies do not publicly disclose security incidents and eventual ransom payments to avoid negative publicity. When no regulated data, such as personal information or health records, are impacted by the breach, this may be a wise approach," said Ilia Kolochenko, Founder of ImmuniWeb, and a member of Europol Data Protection Experts Network.
"Nonetheless, breached companies should also carefully revise their breach disclosure duties imposed by contractual obligations. When the incident implicates data protected by GDPR, CCPA or HIPAA, concealment of the data theft may have harsh legal ramifications up to criminal prosecution."
Last month saw the 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline taken offline for four days following a ransomware attack by Eastern European group DarkSide. Colonial paid around $4.4 million in ransom, though a taskforce created by the Biden administration has since recovered $2.3 million of the Bitcoin payment. Read Full Article
CPO Magazine: FBI Recovers $2.3 Million of Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Payment; Some Questions About the Attack Answered
Computing: JBS paid $11 million to the REvil ransomware gang to decrypt its systems