The ransomware attack crippling a major repair firm that no one’s talking about

The ransomware attack crippling a major repair firm that no one’s talking about

Dell, Lenovo, even Apple brand computer and device repairs might be seeing major repair delays at the moment as a top repair firm they use was hit by a ransomware attack that ground their operations to a complete halt.

This has been seemingly squashed as a news worthy event for the moment but we think customers should be made aware that if they send their desktop or laptop in for a repair at this time they face major delays in getting it back. In fact, there may be a delay in even getting a box to send the machine back in as even shipping has also been affected by this ransomware.

Reported briefly by ItWire, this attack aimed at the security firm Symantec has taken down a number of systems across the country. From the attackers’ view point they were able to disable one of the end point protections allowing access, and to make matters worse the software was up to date at the time, leading to major questions as to how this was able to occur at all.

CSAT, used by Dell, Lenovo, Apple and more was hit just over a week ago and customers have been facing problems ever since.

We haven’t been able to confirm that any customer data was leaked, however, according to the ItWire article a number of screenshots of computer directories were placed online.

If the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that governs in the UK applied in this case, these companies should have reported any exposed customer data within 72 hours. It’s possible no customer data was leaked but the scope of this apparent ransomware has us questioning whether that’s true.

We’re uncertain if business support class customers are facing the same delays as home users however as with most things there may be a trickle-down effect.

The ransomware that allowed this to occur was called NetWalker and it’s been responsible for 10 major breaches just this year. It’s clear to us ransomware as a service is not going anywhere soon when the payouts are so lucrative.

Released in April 2019, the average payout on a NetWalker attack is $175,000 in bitcoin following each successful campaign. One of the highest payouts was $1.14 million from the University of California. It’s estimated the NetWalker ransomware gang has made $25 million in all.

This latest attack shows that it’s not only a loss of data and having to pay a hefty sum that come as side effects from being hit with ransomware, the affected security firm and repair firm are also experiencing a major loss of credibility with customers that they may never fully recover from.

You may think your business is too small to be hit with a ransomware attack, but the fact is ransomware as a service has made orchestrating these attacks easier than ever. Even a small payout of a few thousand dollars may be worth it to some individuals with low moral standing just looking for some quick cash.

Or maybe they’re not interested in your money at all, maybe they’re interested in your data which may be more lucrative for them. Also, many hackers commit their attacks just for the thrill of it and will think nothing of dismantling your technology operations and leaving you stranded.

We don’t think this should happen to anyone; we can help businesses located in the Central Valley beef up their cyber security provisions to stop ransomware gangs in their tracks.

VTL Cyber Security

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This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.

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