Keumars Afifi-Sabet reports:
Data stolen from Hackney Borough Council in a major cyber attack last October has been published online by the hackers responsible.
Cyber security experts working with the local authority have confirmed “a limited set of data” has now been published online, four months after hackers infiltrated its networks.
Read more on ITPro.
It may be a “limited” set of data compared to the original number of files, but PysA threat actors have dumped gigabytes of data, including staff data, photo ID files, passport-related information, crime-related information, and complaints submitted to council, photos, tenancy audit scans, etc.
Note that in this case, the ransomware attack had significant impact on some of the council’s functioning, which in turn, had significant impact on the ability of residents to complete real estate transactions such as buying homes.
As one resident told BBC:
It’s extremely frustrating as the hack has ruined our plans and cost us money that we’ll never get back. The sale of our property fell through because our buyer wasn’t able to carry out a search on our house so couldn’t get a mortgage.
“Subsequently we lost the house we were planning on buying and had already spent more than £1,000 on a survey for.