The weekend was not so much fun for one of Chile’s three biggest banks. BancoEstado is one of the biggest banks in Chile but it was forced to shut down on Monday. The shutdown happened after a ransomware attack was undertaken on all of the branches of the bank. An official statement was published on the Twitter account of BancoEstado about the same. The official statement didn’t contain any information about the data breach but it clearly stated that the branches of the bank will remain closed. The details about the ransomware attack are not public yet.
As per the source who is very close to the investigation, it is said that the internal network of the bank was affected. The internal network of the bank was attacked by the REvil ransomware. Further investigation about the hack is currently taking place by the officials. It is said that the hack originated from a malicious office document. The document was received and opened by an employee by mistake. The file must have installed a backdoor on the bank’s network. The hackers must have used the back door so that they can access the network of the bank to install ransomware. The hack is said to have taken place on Friday and Saturday.
The hack was discovered by the employees on the weekend shifts. The employee complaint that they were not able to access their work files. The incident was reported to the police on the same day. The Government of Chile immediately gave out a warning on a nationwide cybersecurity alert. The warning clearly stated that a ransomware campaign is about to start in the private sector. Officials of the bank were hoping to get out of the attack without letting anybody know. Although, the damage by this attack was very serious. Many of the internal networks of the bank were compromised.
