FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON Russian hackers don’t stop. On Friday 2 July they attacked the servers of Kaseya, an American multinational based in Miami (the legal one in Dublin, Ireland) specializing in the provision and management of IT services to companies. The pirates are part of the REvil group and would have demanded ransoms in series, up to a maximum of 5 million dollars, to provide the key necessary to return to normal. A proven scheme: the same training put out of use the computer systems in the American branch of JBS, the Brazilian group world leader in the production of meat. They asked for and received a payment of $ 11 million.
But this new foray has a different political impact, because comes three weeks after the Geneva summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. On June 16, the American president warned his interlocutor: if you violate our cybersecurity, we will respond in kind. The two leaders, however, had agreed to work together to neutralize the hackers. It had been one of the few concrete results of the face-to-face. However, several American analysts had declared themselves skeptical: Putin would have done nothing to stop digital sabotage because they are part of a more comprehensive strategy of interference and disturbance on US territory.
Biden remains cautious for the moment. On Saturday he instructed the secret services to compile a report on what happened. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency are also working on it. The president also told reporters: We are not yet certain. The first impression that the Russian government is not involved, but we’ll see. The raiders managed to compromise the software used by Kaseya to operate the customers’ systems. Kaseya said that the computers of about 40 companies out of a total of 36,000 users were contaminated. But according to US media, at least 200 companies may have suffered some damage. Yesterday at 1pm the company posted a note on its website, reporting a brief statement from CEO Fred Voccola: We know how this could have happened and we are able to remedy it. Meanwhile, however, the REvir would have asked for ransoms of varying amounts from Kaseya’s customers: from $ 50,000 up to $ 5 million, depending on the size of the business.
Congress is examining a law on the subject. The rules also include a ban on companies from paying the ransom. The latest sensational case dates back to May 19: Joseph Blount, CEO of another large company under attack, the Colonial Pipeline, revealed to the Wall Street Journal of having paid $ 4.4 million to hackers, probably from the Darkside group. They too are Russians.
July 4th 2021 (change July 4th 2021 | 23:04)
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