The internet remains a very vulnerable space as many websites get attacked by notorious hackers who demand crypto for payment. The bad actors demand the assets due to the presence of anonymity, meaning that authorities would not be able to trace where the cryptos go. Security challenges like this made many nations decide to regulate the digital asset space by giving know-your-customer requirements for crypto service providers to put in place.
The regulations have reduced the demand for ransomware globally. Still, hackers find a way to manipulate systems to access vital information such as customer or company data. The sensitive nature of the data instigates companies to pay the money demanded eventually.
DoppelPaymer hackers strike again
The group of hackers gained immense popularity in 2020, with their long list of hack victims in Mexico. Around late last year, United States authorities warned about the groups’ activities in America, which shows that the criminals were moving to other countries.
The hackers are now in North America, as they now have access to Kia’s company data. Kia is a well-known motor company, and the hacked branch is located in America. The hackers requested for random, which is around 600 BTC and currently worth over $30 million.
The ransomware attack usually involves the hackers stealing sensitive information belonging to individuals, companies, or institutions. The hackers can also encrypt the data to prevent the owners from access it and further request payments in cryptocurrencies; usually Bitcoin, to give them tools to regain access to their information.
A source shared that Kia is now the group’s newest victim. The company, which has its headquarter in California, might be forced to make payments or risk data leaked to competitors. The incident happened when the IT outage occurred, which affected many things such as the owner’s portal and phone payment.
The site’s problems made experts understand that the company went through a ransomware attack, which caused some problems for the organization. The company said it had outages that involved internal and customer-facing systems. However, Kia assured that it would find a solution to the current problem.
Kia denies hackers involvement in IT outage
A source shared more information on the attack by revealing a ransom message that the hacker group left for the car company. The group said that they hacked the system and that they also infiltrated Hyundai’s system. DoppelPaymer also created a Tor page where it revealed that it had stolen a lot of data from the Kia website while threatening to release the data if they don’t pay the ransom within two to three weeks.
The hackers asked for $21 million in BTC, which is around 404 BTC, as a ransom to prevent the data’s release. The group also added that if they fail to pay up within the timeframe, the ransom will increase to $31 million in Bitcoin.
The firm had denied the ransomware attack and asserted that the problem is because of the IT outage, which affected some aspects. Many firms have experienced such attacks, which resulted in millions paid in Bitcoin to secure customer data.
Tokenhell produces content exposure for over 5,000 crypto companies and you can be one of them too! Contact at info@tokenhell.com if you have any questions. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Some of the posts on this website are guest posts or paid posts that are not written by Tokenhell authors (namely Crypto Cable , Sponsored Articles and Press Release content) and the views expressed in these types of posts do not reflect the views of this website. Tokenhell is not responsible for the content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products or any other content or banners (ad space) posted on the site. Read full terms and conditions / disclaimer.
