It is no secret at this point that ransomware gangs have been quite prevalent and that hacking is going on everywhere right now. It is also a fact that most people who have been attacked have had to pay the ransom and there was a report we did yesterday about a company that prevented the attack but still had to pay ransom for retrieving some files.
Now, a new report about ransomware attack is coming from Argentina where an ISP has been told to pay a ransom of whopping $7.5 million in order to get their files back. The ISP we are talking about is Telecom Argentina and they are the latest victims of a ransomware gang.
It is also known that Telecom Argentina is the biggest telecom operator and internet service provider in the company meaning that they are likely to pay the ransom as well. This is a modus operandi for the hackers who target companies that are most likely to fulfil their demands of ransom. However, we do feel that $7.5 million ransom is quite a lot for any company, desperate or not.
As per the reports from Argentina, it is said to be the biggest hacks that has taken place so far in the country and that it took place just last weekend. Reports mention that July 18 was the day this hack got exposed. ISP insiders have mentioned that “hackers caused extensive damage to the company’s network after they managed to gain control over an internal Domain Admin, from where they spread and installed their ransomware payload to more than 18,000 workstations.”
It is interesting that the ISP, even after being attacked with ransomware, was not affected by service outage and the internet, as well as cable TV and telephone lines of their customers, were working. Having said that, their websites were definitely down.