A hacking collective that goes by the name “Hacktivist,” also known as SiegedSec, has recently claimed to be in possession of classified NATO documents. Their assertion comes after successfully infiltrating the North Atlantic Alliance’s servers earlier this year.
In response to this alarming development, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has promptly initiated an investigation into the incident. NATO authorities are diligently examining whether these cybercriminals have accessed sensitive strategic planning and research documents from their IT infrastructure. Details of the investigation’s findings will be disclosed soon, according to NATO officials.
To substantiate their claims, the hacktivist group, a subgroup of Alphv, published a portion of the pilfered data on their Telegram channel. They emphasized that this information was obtained approximately three months ago from the organization’s website servers.
In a separate cybersecurity incident, Motel One, a budget hotel chain based in Germany, revealed that it had fallen victim to a ransomware attack. The attackers utilized encryption tools to compromise the hotel chain’s digital infrastructure, resulting in downtime. Motel One, one of Europe’s largest hotel chains with over 90 properties, disclosed that the perpetrators had accessed data linked to 169 customer credit cards and their corresponding addresses.
Although the scale of the impact was relatively small, the hotel chain is actively seeking expert guidance to bolster its defenses against future cyberattacks. Initial suspicions point to the ALPHV ransomware gang as the culprits. Preliminary assessments suggest that the gang managed to exfiltrate a substantial amount of data, exceeding 2 terabytes, including information related to both employees and customers.
It’s worth noting that both of these European-based victims find themselves in a region that supports Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia. Additionally, both incidents were attributed to ALPHV, a notorious double-extortion gang that also targeted MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment Casinos back in August of this year. Notably, both MGM and Caesars, operating in the entertainment and hospitality sectors, made substantial financial contributions to secure the release of their encrypted databases.
