Title: FBI Investigates Hacker Attack on Church of Sweden
The FBI is currently investigating a recent hacker attack on the Church of Sweden, which is believed to have been carried out by the group “Blackcat.” The attack, which occurred at the end of November, saw several of the church’s IT systems locked, and the hackers allegedly demanded money from the religious community.
Initially, the church believed that they were experiencing a serious malfunction, but it was later revealed to be a Ransomware attack. This resulted in around 500 of the church’s IT systems being knocked out, including payroll and booking systems, and the church being required to pay large ransoms.
“The Church of Sweden will not pay any ransom,” the church stated in early December. However, on 15 December, the IT systems were finally secured.
It was not until the end of December that the Church of Sweden revealed that the hacker group Blackcat was behind the attack, following an FBI raid on the group’s computer network, where several seizures were made.
“The group is one of the world’s largest in terms of cybercrime. The FBI has raided the Blackcat group’s computer network and made several seizures. The Church of Sweden is one of the more than 1,000 victims worldwide who have been subjected to ransomware attacks by the Blackcat group, which in that way received several hundred million dollars in ransom money,” the Church of Sweden stated in a press release.
The attack has been reported to the police, and as parish priest Fredrik Hägglund in Borås stated, “This will be a proper investigation so that we find out what happened and it will perhaps be useful for others.”