Insurance giant CNA Financial reportedly paid hackers $40M in ransom
CNA Financial, one of the biggest insurance companies in the US, reportedly forked over $40 million in ransom after it was hit by a cyberattack in late March.
The Chicago-based company was locked out of its network and
decided to pay the hackers after about two weeks, Bloomberg News reported,
citing two people with knowledge of the attack.
A CNA spokeswoman confirmed to Bloomberg that the
cyberattack occurred, but declined to comment on the ransom.
The spokeswoman said the company shared information about
the attack and the hackers with the FBI and the Treasury Department’s Office of
Foreign Assets Control, which said last year that facilitating ransom payments
to hackers could pose sanctions risks.
“CNA followed all laws, regulations, and published guidance,
including OFAC’s 2020 ransomware guidance, in its handling of this matter,” the
spokeswoman, Cara McCall, told Bloomberg.
CNA, which offers cyber insurance, said it believed the
hackers behind the cyberattack were a group called Phoenix, according to
Bloomberg. The $40 million ransom is larger than any previously disclosed
payment to hackers, the report said.
Ransomware is a malicious software that locks up a user’s data.
Hackers typically demand money to unlock or return the affected data.
The disclosure of the attack on CNA comes just weeks after
the hacking of Colonial Pipeline by Russia-based cybergang DarkSide. That
hacking shuttered the biggest oil pipeline in the US and spurred panic buying
and gas shortages across the Southeast.
Colonial paid DarkSide a ransom of $4.4 million, CEO Joseph
Blount said. The FBI has long advised companies not to pay when hit by
ransomware.
The FBI says that paying ransom creates incentives for more
attacks and supports criminal gangs.
The multiple attacks and the scale of the payments the
hackers demanded underscore the degree to which ransomware attacks have
proliferated in recent years.
Ransomware payments rose to a staggering $350 million last
year, up 311 percent compared with the year prior, according to a task-force of
security experts and law enforcement agencies.
That group delivered 48 recommendations on how the Biden
administration and private companies could shore up cybersecurity.
The 81-page report, prepared by the Institute for Security
and Technology, was delivered to the White House days before Colonial Pipeline
hacking.
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