Indonesia Says It Has Begun Recovering Data After Major Ransomware Attack (reuters.com) 11
Indonesia said it is beginning to recover data that had been encrypted in a major ransomware attack last month which affected more than 160 government agencies. From a report: The attackers identified as Brain Cipher asked for $8 million in ransom to unlock the data before later apologising and releasing the decryption key for free, according to Singapore-based cybersecurity firm StealthMole. The attack has disrupted multiple government services including immigration and operations at major airports. Indonesian officials have acknowledged that the bulk of the data had not been backed up. Chief Security Minister Hadi Tjahjanto said in a statement late on Thursday that data for 30 public services overseen by 12 ministries had been recovered using a "decryption strategy" without elaborating.
The only good backup... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"officials have acknowledged that the bulk of the data had not been backed up", amazingly dumb.
Re: (Score:2)
"officials have acknowledged that the bulk of the data had not been backed up", amazingly dumb.
This is, unfortunately, the reason for the success of any ransomware attack. Any successful attack is no different from a hard drive failure.
I can understand anyone falling victim to an attack. Mistakes are made at many levels, and you can't train everyone to be 100% vigilant all the time. The problem isn't any ransomware attack occurring. The problem is when an organization isn't prepared for it. Not having backups, especially for public agency, is negligent. Backing up vital data is trivially easy
Re: (Score:2)
I definitely agree about the importance of backups, at least then you have a chance of recovery.
But I have heard that even backups can be corrupted, particularly if they are stored on machines where the attackers can reach them. Also the mere act of creating the backups could potentially be compromised. I think about this sometimes and store backups on a portable drive that is otherwise not plugged in, but even that is not guaranteed to be safe.
Internal disagreement, or someone got to them? (Score:5, Interesting)
Brain Cipher asked for $8 million in ransom to unlock the data before later apologising and releasing the decryption key for free
I would love to know the story behind that.
Re: (Score:2)
"decryption strategy"
using the key provided?
Re: (Score:1)
Translation: "We found your shack in Timbuktu and have 30 missiles aimed at it."
Re: (Score:3)
Might not have even taken a verbalized threat, just the sudden realization that "oh, shit, our victim is an entity with its own military".
Whole countries, eh? (Score:2)
...somebody in Jakarta is an Neal Stephenson fan! (Score:1)
Reamde: A Novel. {a.k.a.: Don't encrypt the hard drive of an Accountant managing the Russian MAFIA's pension fund.}