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Rise in Number of Defense Contractors Being Hacked

Rise in Number of Defense Contractors Being Hacked
Interserve, Britain’s Ministry of Defence contractor, is the most recent company to be hacked. It has been reported that the data of nearly 100,000 previous and current employees have been stolen.

What is happening

It has been reported by The Daily Telegraph that the records consist of names, addresses, payroll information, bank details, disciplinary records, next of kin information, and personnel details. The firm has confirmed that the data breach took place earlier this month.

This is not the first attack

This is not the first time that a defense contractor has been the target of cyberattacks.
  • Visser Precision, LLC was attacked by DoppelPaymer ransomware. The companies affected by this attack include Boeing, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics, among several others.
  • APT groups are constantly targeting the military sector and defense contractors. Iran-based hacking groups are focusing on the defense industry in the U.S.
  • Mitsubishi Electric suffered a data breach last year and disclosed the information this year in February.

What the experts are saying

  • Ransomware operators have upped their games and apart from, data theft, they are also threatening to publish the victim’s data if the ransom is not paid.
  • When the victim is a third-party supplier of other organizations, the possible loss of revenue from customers is an expensive variable.

In essence

Targeting defense contractors is a clever tactic used by threat actors as it does not only cause damage to one company, but also the customers of the contractors.

Cyware Publisher

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Cyware