Hackers Hit Citycomp With Ransomware Exposing Financial Data From Toshiba, VW, Oracle, Airbus
No information is safe in the Internet age. Citycomp, an Germany-based IT services company, reported that they had been hacked and blackmailed. Some of their clients include Oracle, Airbus, Toshiba, Volkswagen, Leica, and Porsche.
Citycomp is an IT services company that provides items such as servers, storage, and other computer equipment to other major companies. It appears that the hackers targeted the German branches of these international companies. The list of victims includes both corporations with an international reach and strictly German companies.
The hackers, who go by the alias "Boris-Bullet Dodger", have distributed some of the stolen files on a website. Some of the affected firms have lost several files of data while others have lost hundreds. Boris-Bullet Dodger claims that they have “312,570 files in 51,025 folders, over 516GB data financial and private information on all clients.” They are currently demanding $5,000 USD from Citycomp
The hackers apparently had other motivations for the attack besides money. Boris-Bullet Dodger stated on their website that they purposely targeted Citycomp because the company has a “totally awful security system”. The hackers were able to gather the data over a period of a month. They do not plan to extort the client companies because they are “not guilty of awful work of Citycomp”.
The attack is currently under police investigation and Citycomp has alerted all of their affected clients. Some of their clients like Volkswagen are also conducting their own private investigations. Citycomp is insistent that they will not give in to the demands of the hackers. A representative from CityComp remarked, “We did not yield to the extortion demands and our analysts are conducting a profound technical and forensic analysis on the attack.” The investigation is ongoing and there is not yet a resolution.
Citycomp is certainly not the only major company to experience an extensive attack. Hackers stole 6 TB of data from Citrix, and American software company. The FBI believes that the Iranian hacker group IRIDIUM is responsible for the attack and that they used password spraying to gain access to Citrix’s internal network. It is believed that the stolen data includes “email correspondence, files in network shares and other services used for project management and procurement.” Let’s hope that companies strengthen their cybersecurity this year.
Citycomp is an IT services company that provides items such as servers, storage, and other computer equipment to other major companies. It appears that the hackers targeted the German branches of these international companies. The list of victims includes both corporations with an international reach and strictly German companies.
The hackers, who go by the alias "Boris-Bullet Dodger", have distributed some of the stolen files on a website. Some of the affected firms have lost several files of data while others have lost hundreds. Boris-Bullet Dodger claims that they have “312,570 files in 51,025 folders, over 516GB data financial and private information on all clients.” They are currently demanding $5,000 USD from Citycomp
The hackers apparently had other motivations for the attack besides money. Boris-Bullet Dodger stated on their website that they purposely targeted Citycomp because the company has a “totally awful security system”. The hackers were able to gather the data over a period of a month. They do not plan to extort the client companies because they are “not guilty of awful work of Citycomp”.
The attack is currently under police investigation and Citycomp has alerted all of their affected clients. Some of their clients like Volkswagen are also conducting their own private investigations. Citycomp is insistent that they will not give in to the demands of the hackers. A representative from CityComp remarked, “We did not yield to the extortion demands and our analysts are conducting a profound technical and forensic analysis on the attack.” The investigation is ongoing and there is not yet a resolution.
Citycomp is certainly not the only major company to experience an extensive attack. Hackers stole 6 TB of data from Citrix, and American software company. The FBI believes that the Iranian hacker group IRIDIUM is responsible for the attack and that they used password spraying to gain access to Citrix’s internal network. It is believed that the stolen data includes “email correspondence, files in network shares and other services used for project management and procurement.” Let’s hope that companies strengthen their cybersecurity this year.
