NetWalker Ransomware Strikes Texas
The NetWalker Ransomware Group has claimed their latest victim. This is after taking down a California med school and Michigan State university.
This time, they've compromised Fort Worth's transit agency, stealing sensitive data. The attack took down Trinity Metro's phone lines and booking system. To make matters worse, the attackers are threatening to release stolen files if the ransom isn't paid.
NetWalker hacked Trinity Metro’s private files and is threatening to release all their data unless Trinity Metro gives them money.
“Once this time runs out, they will release those stolen files to the whole world. And anyone who wants to can download them and make use of them.”
NetWalker is amongst several prominent Ransomware teams who are wreaking havoc with their malicious software. Did you know there's even a cybercriminal cartel!
The criminal group posted screenshots of Trinity Metro’s encrypted data files on their online blog on the dark-web.
These hacker groups operate in the Dark Web, a little known part of the Internet. It's only accessible with special browser software. NetWalker uses its Dark Web blog and forum to distribute stolen data. Yes, exactly like what happened to Madonna.
The screenshots on the blog show a list of hundreds of files with labels such as “Vendor W9s,” “Passenger information system,” and “ACCESS stuff.”
The attackers have now added in a countdown clock that reads "secret data publication in..." with the time period until data is released. This is all part of an increased effort to force the payment of their ransom demand.
“Once this time runs out, they will release those stolen files to the whole world. And anyone who wants to can download them and make use of them.”
Unfortunately, this is not the first time hackers successfully used the fear of a countdown timer to drive a large payout.