From the past two days a data leak is doing rounds on the dark web and the information seems to be related to Royal Military College (RMC) in Canada. Highly placed sources say that the leaked info truly belongs to the RMC, as the servers of the institution were breached in early July this year.
Although the Department of Defense failed to acknowledge the incident, Brett Callow, a security researcher working for Emsisoft confirmed that the leak and added that it could be a result of a ransomware attack launched by DopplePaymer gang in July 2020.
Till 2018, Ransomware spreading hackers used to just encrypt a database until a ransom was paid. But to put pressure on the victims for payment, some ransomware spreading gangs like Maze, Sodinoibi aka REvil and DopplePaymer stole the data first from the targeted servers and then locked down the database in order to assure themselves of a ransom pay in either way- by putting pressure on victims in exchange of a decryption key for ransom or to sell the stolen data on the dark web to gain a handsome amount.
In the meantime, the Royal Canada Mounted Police (RCMP) Department in association with the Canadian Center for Cybersecurity along with the Canada Revenue Agency has launched a thorough investigation on why hackers are seen targeting thousands of taxpayers and several federal organizations in Canada.
CRA is also working with the law enforcement on securing their website that fell victim to a cyber attack affecting more than 5,500 tax payer accounts on Friday last week.
Note- On Friday last week i.e. on August 14th,2020 GCkey that maintains information related to over 30 Canadian federal departments fell prey to a cyber attack impacting the financial aid meant that was meant to be distributed to those who lost jobs due to the COVID 19 pandemic spread.
