Macmillan, that is into the publishing business of educational content, was hit by a cyber attack that is suspected to be of ransomware variant. The company is yet to confirm the incident. But the staff of the publishing giant admitted to be experiencing a digital disruption in the IT Infrastructure of the company.
Highly placed sources say the company is not interested in bowing down to the demands of hackers, as it has an efficient data continuity plan in place.
However, a slight delay to the shipments of books would be observed, as access to email to employees has been barred to contain and mitigate risks involved in the incident.
Unconfirmed sources say hackers got access to PII and so if the company cannot pay a ransom on time, it will sell that data on the dark web and would tarnish the image of the company on the internet.
Macmillan was contacted about the incident by Bleeping computer that first reported the matter to the world. But the authorities failed to acknowledge the approach as they were busy investigating the incident.
Usually, ransomware spreading gangs steal data to put pressure on the victim for paying up the demanded ransom. And if the victim cannot pay the ransom, they sell the data for a fair price on the dark web.
Nowadays, ransomware groups are indulging in more notorious tactics of black-mailing the victim to pay up or they threaten to contact the victim’s competitors, customers and partners by tarnishing their image in the business field, respectively.
