After the recent Haldiram’s ransomware attack, restaurant chain Mithaas and PTI has been targeted by the cybercriminals. Read on to know more…
According to the sources, restaurant chain Mithaas is the latest eatery to fall prey to cybercriminals after Haldiram’s. Mithaas’ servers were allegedly hacked data with ransomware on October 22, with Noida police launching a probe into the matter.
Mithaas Ransomware Attack
In the complaint to police, a Mithaas representative said the hacking and ransomware implant on their company server took place in the afternoon. According to Mithaas Sweets management, their server was attacked with ransomware between 3pm and 4 pm on August 22, in which they lost important data saved on the server over the past five years.
The officials of Mithaas Sweets said that a “ransomware” message flashed up on the screen on that day when they had tried to access their server and subsequently they were redirected to another recovery email and ID for getting access to data.
It was reported that Mithaas which runs outlets in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Meerut, has been provided a recovery link and the compromised system is located at their office in the industrial Sector 63 in Noida.
Haldiram Ransomware Attack
The latest Mithaas ransomware attack comes soon after a similar incident with fast food and snack business Haldiram’s, whose servers were also similarly attacked with ransomware, a method used by hackers to infect the user’s systems with a virus, encrypt data and then demand a ransom to decrypt it. According to reports, the ransomware attackers demanded 7,50,000 USD for releasing the recovery code for the compromised information included financial and sales details of Haldiram.
While a complaint was submitted to the cyber cell on July 17 this year, according to officials, an FIR was lodged in the case in October 14. According to the officials, the unidentified cybercriminal had hacked the server of the Haldiram which is based in the Noida Industrial area, C-31, Sector 62, using ransomware.
PTI Ransomware Attack
Last weekend, hackers broke into the servers of news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) crippling its service for hours on Saturday night before they were resumed. According to a PTI spokesperson, it was reported that their computers suffered a massive ransomware attack disrupting operations and the delivery of news to subscribers across India for several hours before they were restored by the cyber security team. It was identified that LockBit ransomware which functions as ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) encrypted data and applications, crippling the news delivery to subscribers.
According to sources, no ransom was paid and the engineers worked through the night to restore the services by Sunday morning.
Conclusion
According to the latest National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) data, India recorded a massive increase of 63.5% in cybercrime cases in 2019. There has been a significant rise in the number of cyber-related crimes in recent times, especially after the pandemic lockdown.
While all the three recent ransomware attacks may not have anything to do with the same attacker, the rapid pace of cyberattacks in India in recent times is certainly alarming.
Today, there is a greater need that the organizations have to regularly continue with vulnerability and penetration testing to identify security loopholes in the system by white hat hackers, security and network penetration experts.