While the news is still very fresh that Garmin was recently hacked and this was not a simple hacking but rather a ransomware attack which meant that its services were down and encrypted. Also, the new report that Garmin had to pay in multimillion dollars as a ransom in order to get access back to its system files is already making the waves all over the internet. As per one insider who also happens to be an employee, Garmin had to pay $10 million as a ransom to the attackers and it was attacked by the WannaCry ransomware group.
Although the news of Garmin is still fresh, we feel that it will get old very soon because a new company has been found to have undergone a similar type of ransomware attack. This company is none other than the travel giant CWT and we also know that the travel industry is already going through a lot due to the pandemic. So the worst that could have happened to them was a ransomware attack and so that has also been done.
According to reports found on Skift.com, CWT was attacked recently and they have even paid a ransom in order to get access to their files back similar to Garmin. Although, CWT made a deal of paying $4.5 million in ransom which is lower than Garmin but quite high as well. CWT has remained quiet regarding this attack but internet users noticed that a transaction was done recently and that “someone transferred 414 Bitcoin ($4.5 million). According to sources in the thread ‘, 30,000 systems were infected and locked’.” related to CWT.
This confirms that the hackers were paid in Bitcoins which is the modus operandi since cryptocurrency cannot be tracked and that is why it is the safest form of payment that can be accepted by the hackers while still being safe.
