The US-based travel management giant CWT has just been forced to pay $4.5 million worth of Bitcoin to cybercriminals as a ransom to regain access to its sensitive computer files that were hijacked, Reuters reported Monday.
Aside from the sensitive corporate files the hackers stole which contained two terabytes of files, including financial reports, security documents, and even some of the employees’ personal data, they also claimed to have knocked 30,000 computers offline, the report said.
Although investigations revealed that CWT believed the number of infected computers was pretty less than the 30,000 computers the hackers claimed they had infected.
The company could not afford to make such a huge loss and was thereby compelled to enter a negotiation with the hackers, which resulted in them demanding a ransom. During the negotiation, the hackers first demanded $10 million from the company, but later accepted $4.5M after a CWT ‘s representative pleaded for less, explaining their plight of having suffered financial losses during the pandemic.
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It was done publicly
Funny but shocking, the entire negotiation between the company’s representative and the hackers happened in a publicly accessible online chat group, not minding the nature of the crime.
CWT announced the attack but refused to give more details on the ongoing investigations. They also said they had immediately informed U.S. law enforcement and European data protection authorities.
“We can confirm that after temporarily shutting down our systems as a precautionary measure, our systems are back online and the incident has now ceased.While the investigation is at an early stage, we have no indication that personally identifiable information/customer and traveller information has been compromised.” the company said.
