Prudential Hit by Ransomware Group

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reports that BlackCat ransomware-spreading affiliates have hacked about 1,000 entities, including about 750 in the United States, and received about $300 million in ransomware payments.

The field hackers get into an organization's computer by calling an employee and pretending to work for the information technology or help desk team. The hacker then tricks the employee into providing the credentials the hacker needs to get into the organization's network.

In some cases, the hacker gets an organization's data and extorts an employee without installing ransomware.

The attack: Prudential reported in the first SEC notice that it had detected a system intrusion Feb. 5 and believed that the intrusion had occurred Feb. 4. The company noted that it had informed law enforcement and regulatory authorities.

In the new notice, the company says it believes that the intruder was a cybercrime group.

"Our investigation has identified that the group accessed and exfiltrated from a platform limited data that includes some client information and personally identifiable information," the company says. "The threat actor also accessed and exfiltrated company administrative and user data from certain information technology systems and accessed a small percentage of company user accounts associated with employees and contractors."

Credit: Bloomberg