The National Basketball Association affiliated Houston Rockets were relatively hit by a ransomware variant that is suspected to be Babuk Ransomware and highly placed sources say that the American Professional Basketball team was hit by a file encrypting malware gang that is demanding $50 million to free up the data from encryption.
Tracey Hughes, the spokesperson of the NBA Houston Rockets issued a press statement announcing a partial impact on the digital operations of the team. But added that a threat monitoring solution contained the malware spread notified the IT staff before it could damage the most.
Ransomware is a kind of malware that locks down data from a server from access with data encryption until a ransom is paid. Some gangs such as REvil, Maze, Babuk first steal data and then lock the database to indulge in double extortion techniques to pressurize the victim to pay the fee.
With Houston Rockets, sources say that the ransomware spreading gang siphoned over 550 gigabytes of data that includes contracts, financial documents and non-disclosure agreements.
McAfee Inc reports that the said malware spreading gang has a history of demanding $85 million from its victims and has done so in one of its campaigns. The report adds the fact that the Babuk Ransomware gang is affiliated to Russia and targets mainly victims from West, such as USA and UK.
