Ransomware gang Maze reportedly stole 1.5TB of sensitive data from the ST Engineering Aerospace, the US branch of an integrated engineering group, which works with various governments, and its partners.
On June 6, it has been reported by The Straits Times that the Singapore-based company was allegedly attacked by Maze in March, citing an analysis by cybersecurity firm, Cyfirma.
However, the report states that the data stolen by the criminals is related to contract details with various government, organizations, and airlines across the globe, as no additional details were provided on its content.
An internal memo has been issued on March 3 by ST Engineering Aerospace, detailing the VT San Antonio Aerospace as the site of a “ransomware infection.”
Well-known ransomware group allegedly stole sensitive information from the US branch of ST Engineering Aerospace https://t.co/8IPMKhsRw6 — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) June 7, 2020
The memo stated that McAfee and Windows Defender did not initially identify the ransomware attack. They managed to detect the problem by reading the renamed files and associated “DECRYPT-FILES.txt” located in the same folder as encrypted files.
Likewise, Ed Onwe, the Vice-President and General Manager at VT San Antonio Aerospace, said:
“Our ongoing investigation indicates that the threat has been contained, and we believe it to be isolated to a limited number of ST Engineering’s US commercial operations. Currently, our business continues to be operational.”
Also, Cyfirma assured that some of the data stolen contained information on contracts with the governments of countries like Peru and Argentina, and with agencies such as NASA.
Thus, Brett Callow, the threat analyst at malware lab Emsisoft, commented:
“Ransomware groups often leave backdoors which, if not remediated, can provide continued access to a network and enable a second attack. This one of the reasons we always recommend that companies rebuild their networks after an incident as opposed to simply decrypting their data.”
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: New Atlas
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