Extortionist hacks IT provider used by the stars of tech

A service provider hired by the likes of Oracle, SAP, BT, and many others, to manage their IT systems has been hacked – and its client data held to ransom.

At the turn of this month, Germany-based CityComp was broken into by a miscreant, who pinched troves of private information from its customer database and threatened to publicly reveal all that stolen data unless a ransom was coughed up.

The hacker, going by the name Boris, has said that right now a partial sample of the swiped info is available to download from a Tor-hidden dark web site, and because the ransom was not paid by CityComp, the full archives are set to be released today. Boris claimed the price was $5,000, though CityComp disputes this and says it was more than that.

CityComp boasts it looks after "more than 70,000 servers and storage systems of all types and sizes in up to 75 countries. In addition, we provide support for more than 500,000 client hardware (PC, workstation, printer, cash register)."

In other words, it's hired to install, maintain, repair, and remove IT equipment for scores of companies, ranging from Oracle, SAP, BT, Toshiba, VW and Airbus to Porsche, Hugo Boss, Ericsson and ATOS.

According to sources who have seen the partially leaked information, the data so far includes things like contact information for CityComp's customers – such as names, email addresses and phone numbers – notes of meetings with clients, and IT equipment inventories, such as model numbers, specifications, and serial numbers. How much is available to download depends on the victim: some have a few spreadsheets of contact details leaked, and some have what's said to be long lists of installed computer gear and other documentation.

This information could be useful to criminals seeking any inside information to pull off targeted cyber-attacks against certain corporations. We're not talking direct identity theft, here.

According to Boris, "312,570 files in 51,025 folders, over 516 Gb data financial and private information on all clients, include VAG, Ericsson, Leica, MAN, Toshiba, UniCredit, British Telecom and etc," was stolen from the German service provider.

source theregister

Industry: Cyber Security News

Extortionist hacks IT provider used by the stars of tech and big biz, leaks customer info after ransom goes unpaid

Extortionist hacks IT provider used by the stars of tech and big biz, leaks customer info after ransom goes unpaid

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