The Latest Cyber Attacks in December 2020
As the cyberattacks in November, proven to be strong as the year winds down but, also for the month of December surprised many as a few on the list below made big headlines all over the news. Cybersecurity attacks has made the most local and national news coverage during the global pandemic, where many like yourself are drawn to which company or organization is next to be hacked and breached. Stay on top of the latest cyber attacks in December 2020 and each month with us as Green Shield Technology reporting on information technology security news.
IT Security Breaches and Incidents in the month, December 2020.
Cyber Attacks in December Contents:
Global Staffing Agency, Randstad Ransomware Cyberattack
Global staffing agency, Randstad hit with ransomware to their network. In early December hackers stole unencrypted files during the attack. The company is still verifying if the information accessed is the data of their clients or employees. The company claims it serves over 28,00 clients and operates within 18 countries. The IT department became aware of malicious activity on its network. A few of their servers were down but this didn’t interrupt the whole network for Randstad. The company goes on to state that the Egregor ransomware group obtained unauthorized access to its global IT environment. This includes the US, Poland, Italy, and France. The data accessed by the Egregor group contained personal data from job hunters.
Type of Cyberattack: Ransomware
How is the Company proceeding:
Who is at risk: Job seekers who use Randstad
Kmart Ransomware Cyberattack
The retail company Kmart was hit with ransomware which rendered its servers and back-end services along with encrypting devices. The cyber hackers who hacked Kmart named Egregor Group also claim to be the ransomware attack against Barnes & Noble earlier this year along with the recent staffing agency reported/mentioned above.
Type of Cyberattack: Ransomware
How is the Company proceeding: Shut down the owned 88series.com used interally is offline.
Who is at risk: company staff
Web Hosting Netgain Cyberattack
The cyberattack left the web hosting site offline due to ransomware. The company stated that the attack left all of its cloud servers for health and accounting businesses offline.
Type of Cyberattack: Ransomware
How is the Company proceeding: Shutting down affected websites and services/serves
Who is at risk: Web Hosting in the health and accounting businesses
Solarwinds Cyberattack
In the middle of the month, Solarwinds has disclosed a major cyberattack on its Solarwinds Orion platform affected about 18,000 customers. The texas IT company sent emails to all of it’s customers stating the discovery and steps they are taking as well as the process in the upcoming weeks. U.S. government agencies, business consumers and consulting firms are the main sectors that use the Orion platform. This cyberattack triggered emergency U.S. national security meetings.
Type of Cyberattack: Data Breach
How is the Company proceeding: Updating its software platform, shutting down the platform and directing clients who uses Orion to shut down platform and machines that are being monitored to also be offline.
Who is at risk: Solarwind clients who use the Orion Platform
Cryptocurrency Ledger Hacked
Ledger that offers hardware-based cryptocurrency wallets believed to be attacked by an unauthorized third party who acessed their e-commerce and marketing database. The files acessed were “(.txt)” documents of subscribers and buyers were later uploaded to a hacking forum for cybercriminals. The company has been swiftly responding to Twitter and Reddit posts about the incident. As well as the CEO, Pascal Gauthier, who released an statement, found here, stated his apology to his customers and reasurred them that their hardware wallets nor the funds were accessed.
Type of Cyberattack: Data Breach
How is the Company proceeding: Is working with a security organization to conduct a forensic review of the cyber attack and contacting affected users.
Who is at risk: Ledger email subscribers and Ledger accounts
Final thoughts on the latest cyberattack in December 2020
While many individuals may not have a cryptocurrency wallet or bitcoins, this cyber attack is similar to phishing scams for banking creddentials. For ransomware attacks increasing each year and that should be alarming for any sized business. Protect your employee data, client data, and business data when deploying could solutions within your company network included equipment.
