Two new massive ransomware attacks affected a big company and a government agency. Security experts confirmed that one of them totally breached the entire computer system of Belgium's internal ministry.
People in the audience are illuminated by the screens of their laptop computers during the Sony press conference on the eve of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) on June 4, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. E3 is the most important yearly trade show the USD 78.5 billion videogame industry.
On the other hand, another group targeted Volunteer Service Abroad, which is a giant international non-profit organization. The main goal of this international development charity is to end the world's poverty.
However, it seems like hackers and other malicious actors don't care what are the visions and goals of their targets. Although a massive ransomware attack was able to breach Volunteer Service Abroad's system, the company said that the involved hackers were not able to steal its sensitive information.
"VSA was locked out of its servers. We also disconnected all systems on Friday 14 May and began investigations into the access. Staff was able to work again on Monday 17 May using our current operational systems," said one of Volunteer Service Abroad's spokespersons.
Massive Ransomware Breaches Volunteer Service Abroad
Various hackers are now using different ransomware attacks to breach giant companies and organizations. These include the new Conti ransomware, which attacked the Irish system.
A participant looks at lines of code on a laptop on the first day of the 28th Chaos Communication Congress (28C3) - Behind Enemy Lines computer hacker conference on December 27, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The Chaos Computer Club is Europe's biggest network of computer hackers and its annual congress draws up to 3,000 participants.
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Sources also reported another ransomware that attacked Washington D.C. Police's highly sensitive psych assessment. And now, a new ransomware attack also breached VSA.
Volunteer Search Abroad's staff said that the group behind this one is different from the previous hacking gang that breached the Waikato District Health Board.
"It has been a stressful time and we have lost important historic data, but our IT infrastructure meant we were able to respond quickly and get back to support our partners in 11 countries in the Pacific region," said Stephen Goodman, the chief executive of VSA via Security Brief's latest report.
Belgium Internal Ministry's Computer System also Affected
Aside from VSA, the computer system of Belgium's internal ministry was also a victim of another ransomware attack. This one is a more serious breach since security experts confirmed that the hackers involved were able to attack the whole system of the ministry.
Although this is the case, Cybersecurity Help reported that Olivier Maerens, the communications director of the Federal Public Service Interior, confirmed that the hackers were not able to reach the most sensitive info of the government agency.
For more news updates about new ransomware attacks, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
