LockBit, the notorious gang spreading ransomware, has victimized the servers operating in/for the California’s Finance Department, disrupting the services to a certain extent. The Cal-CSIC has issued a public statement addressing the attack repercussions to be minute and assured that no funds were stolen in the incident.
It appears to be a retaliation attack on the federal government of America by Russia, as Lockbit is a ransomware gang operating for Kremlin. And might have chosen the digital path to corner the Biden led government for arresting Mikhail Vasiliev, who led the malware spread campaign on a global note, before arrest.
Confidential data of about 76GB include the lawsuit proceedings pertaining to Se#ual proceedings was reportedly accessed by hackers, including their pay related documents.
Cerberus Sentinel, the American security firm, claims the damage to be more dangerous than expected, as cyber crooks from the said hacking group could have wiped or encrypted data before detection.
California government has launched a probe on the issue and might also stall producing a financial budget on January 10th,2023, till the inquiry is concluded.
Currently, the budget website is unreachable at the time of this writing.
NOTE- Lockbit is a malware spreading gang operating with an aim to disrupt essential functions of its target, extort money till a ransom is paid and, sometimes, siphoning data and publishing it on the dark web for monetary benefits.
