KANALCOIN NEWS – One of the Biggest travel companies in the United States, CWT, is reported to have made up for data stolen by hackers by paying using bitcoin in the amount of 4.5 million United States dollars.
The CWT data center was reportedly hacked by hackers using ransomware. The ransomware used by the perpetrators is Ragnar Locker. Ragnar Locker itself is a ransomware that functions to encrypt the entire system and make the data center accessible only to hackers.
After installing the ransomware on CWT’s data center, the hackers claimed to have disabled 30,000 computers owned by CWT. However, the company clarified that there was only a cyber attack that hit the data center without deactivation of their 30 thousand computers.
Some time later, CWT has confirmed that all their data can be accessed again and has started online.
“We can confirm that after temporarily shutting down our systems as a precaution, our systems are back online and the incident has now passed,” said a CWT representative.
Based on existing reports, the hackers who damaged the CWT system claimed to have stolen two terabytes of data belonging to CWT. The two terabytes of data consists of billing files, financial statements, security documents, personal data belonging to employees, in the form of email addresses and salary information.
However, the company has confirmed that customer data was not leaked in the hacking case by the hackers.
“While the investigation is still in its early stages, we have no indication that any personally identifiable or customer information and travel information has been compromised,” said a CWT representative.
To get back the data that the hackers had stolen, the company transferred 414 BTC bitcoins or the equivalent of US$4.5 million (Rp. 66.2 billion) on Tuesday (28/7/2020) local time.
According to one cybersecurity expert, Jameswt, the hackers allegedly had other data taken from the CWT system. The data is information about CWT clients, such as AXA Equitable, Abbot Laboratories, AIG, Amazon, Boston Scientific, Facebook, J&J, SONOCO, Estee Lauder and many others.
Guna menindaklanjuti kasus tersebut, CWT dikabarkan telah melaporkan kasus tersebut kepada penegak hukum Amerika Serikat dan otoritas perlindungan data Eropa.
Previously, the hackers had asked for bitcoins equivalent to 10 million United States dollars. However, CWT was only able to provide US$4.5 million. This cannot be separated from the effects of the corona virus pandemic which has damaged the company’s financial sense.
CWT itself is a company engaged in the travel sector from the United States. CWT or Carlson Wagonlit Travel is the fifth largest travel company in the United States. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, CWT recorded revenue of US$1.5 billion in 2019.
The ransomware attacks carried out by these hackers made the losses suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic even worse.
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