On Friday 2 July 2021, just before a long weekend holiday, a Russian-based REvil launched a ransomware attack targeted at an IT management software provider Kaseya VSA in what’s known as a supply-chain attack.
According to Business Insider, this is not the first time REvil has tried to score a fortune through a ransomware attack, and it seems like this is the biggest one yet, and we are still yet to hear what the actual impact of the attack is as the employees of the software provider company are only returning to the office on Tuesday.
In May REvil hit JSB, the largest meat processing company, and scored $11 million (over R156 million), which was paid in bitcoin.
REvil demands $70 million in bitcoin
Kaseya shut down its servers after learning of the attack and has since started posting updates on its blog warning its customers about the attack.
“While our early indicators suggested that only a very small number of on-premises customers were affected, we took a conservative approach in shutting down the SaaS servers to ensure we protected our more than 36,000 customers to the best of our ability,” the company said in a statement.
Initially, REvil had asked for roughly $45 000 (R640 318,95) and failure to pay would double the ransom. It is also reported that the group of hackers had asked other companies to pay up to $5 million (over R71 million). Now they are demanding $70 million to unlock all the affected networks.
Joe Biden orders probe of latest ransomware attack
Joe Biden said that the FBI is investigating the ransomware attack and that he will take action if Moscow is responsible. Last month Biden warned Putin to stop protecting hackers.
Analysts said it is no coincidence that the attack coincided with the July 4 holiday weekend, when companies would be under-staffed and less able to respond, Daily Mail reported.
“We’re not sure who it is. The initial thinking was it was not the Russian government but we’re not sure yet,” Joe Biden said.
“If it is either with the knowledge of and/or a consequence of Russia, then I told Putin we will respond,” he added.