08-21-2020 , 07:13 AM
https://www.zdnet.com/article/university...ware-gang/ University of Utah pays $457,000 to ransomware gang
University officials restored from backups, but they had to pay the ransomware gang to prevent them from leaking student data.
Catalin Cimpanu
By Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day | August 21, 2020 -- 00:19 GMT (17:19 PDT) | Topic: Security The University of Utah revealed today that it paid a ransomware gang $457,059 in order to avoid having hackers leak student information online.
The incident is the latest in a long string of ransomware attacks where criminal groups steal sensitive files from the hacked companies before encrypting their files; and in case victims refuse to pay, threaten to release the stolen documents as a second extortion scheme. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened in the case of the University of Utah. In a statement posted on its website today, the university said it actually dodged a major ransomware incident and that the hackers managed to encrypt only 0.02% of the data stored on its servers.
University officials restored from backups, but they had to pay the ransomware gang to prevent them from leaking student data.
Catalin Cimpanu
By Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day | August 21, 2020 -- 00:19 GMT (17:19 PDT) | Topic: Security The University of Utah revealed today that it paid a ransomware gang $457,059 in order to avoid having hackers leak student information online.
The incident is the latest in a long string of ransomware attacks where criminal groups steal sensitive files from the hacked companies before encrypting their files; and in case victims refuse to pay, threaten to release the stolen documents as a second extortion scheme. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened in the case of the University of Utah. In a statement posted on its website today, the university said it actually dodged a major ransomware incident and that the hackers managed to encrypt only 0.02% of the data stored on its servers.