Japan-based gaming giant Capcom, best known for creating Street Fighter and Resident Evil, recently suffered a ransomware attack, in which hackers demanded payment of an $ 11 million ransom in bitcoin. quotation real) so as not to disclose to the public the confidential information of the company stolen during the attack.
In an official announcement on November 4, Capcom announced that the company's internal networks were breached at dawn on November 2. The ransomware hacked some "specific blocks," including file servers and corporate email, but there was no indication of a breach of customer information, the release said. Capcom is currently working with local law enforcement to investigate the incident.
The Capcom story
The information site Nikkei Japan published the news, a few days ago, that a group known as "RAGNAR LOCKER" had illegally taken possession of 1 terabyte of sensitive data from Capcom's corporate network on November 9th, including some private employee and customer information.
The attackers said that if the company gets in touch with them to settle an agreement on November 11, by 8:00 am Japan time, they will not publish any of the stolen information.
Japanese media Asahi Shimbun also reported similar information on the affair, adding that some of the company's operations were temporarily halted. A ransomware acts by introducing itself into a private network and limiting the access of the owners to the network itself, holding the sensitive information contained within hostage.
At this point, the criminals demand that the victimized companies and any other involved parties be paid a ransom to lift the restrictions and not disclose the information. On November 10, the Asahi telecast "Hodo Station" claimed that the thugs responsible for the attack could demand a ransom of 1,1 billion yen ($ 11 million) in bitcoin from Capcom.
On Wednesday, news outlets The Japan Times and Nikkei Japan reported that the hacker group began releasing some of the stolen information after Capcom failed to meet the 8:00 deadline.
According to Japan Times, some content is viewable and contains passport images. Capcom has refrained from commenting on the details, and has not confirmed if any customer information has been leaked so far.
A still unsolved problem
Cybercriminals who claim to be paid in bitcoin continue to be a problem. Earlier this year, some Twitter accounts linked to famous people and the New Zealand Stock Exchange were hit by similar attacks.
More recently, in October, some sites of the government and several Japanese schools suffered attacks from criminals who tried to extort bitcoin, threatening violent actions. Similar situations also emerged in Austria.
