Up to 1,500 businesses affected by ransomware attack, says US firm's CEO
By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Between 800 and 1,500 businesses around the
world have been affected by a ransomware attack centered
on U.S. information technology firm Kaseya, its chief executive said on Monday.
Fred Voccola, the Florida-based company's CEO, said in an
interview that it was hard to estimate the precise impact of Friday's attack
because those hit were mainly customers of Kaseya's customers.
Kaseya is a company which provides software tools to IT outsourcing
shops: companies that
typically handle back-office work for companies too
small or modestly resourced to have their own tech departments.
One of those tools was subverted on Friday, allowing the hackers
to paralyze hundreds of businesses on all five continents. Although most of
those affected have been small concerns - like dentists' offices or accountants
- the disruption has been felt more keenly in Sweden, where hundreds of
supermarkets had to close because their cash registers were inoperative, or New
Zealand, where schools and kindergartens were knocked offline.
The hackers who claimed responsibility for the breach have
demanded $70 million to restore all the affected businesses' data, although
they have indicated a willingness to temper their demands in private
conversations with a cybersecurity expert
and with Reuters.
"We are always ready to negotiate," a representative of
the hackers told Reuters earlier Monday. The representative, who spoke via a
chat interface on the hackers' website, didn't provide their name.
Voccola refused to say whether he was ready to take the hackers up
on the offer.
"I can't comment 'yes,' 'no,' or 'maybe'," he said when
asked whether his company would talk to or pay the hackers. "No comment on
anything to do with negotiating with terrorists in any way."
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