In recent developments, the Babuk ransomware has reportedly targeted Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police Department and is said to have hacked into its internal computer networks to gain access to sensitive data.
Reportedly, the Babuk ransomware is threatening to expose official, sensitive data of the police department if they are not approached and contacted within 3 days.
Subsequently, the FBI has initiated an investigation for the data breach incident, citing the extent of the hacking incident by Babuk ransomware.
2021 threat trend- Babuk Ransomware:
Babuk ransomware is a ransomware threat discovered in 2021 that has impacted at least five big enterprises, with one already paying the criminals $85,000 after negotiations. As with other variants, this ransomware is deployed in the network of enterprises that the criminals carefully target and compromise.
In its latest ransomware activities, Babuk had reportedly targeted the Houston Rockets basketball team with ransomware and claimed to have accessed sensitive data such as player contracts and financial data.
Sensitive data reportedly accessed:
Reporting the data breach attack, the Washington DC police department provided a statement on Monday that an unauthorized party has gained access to their server networks.
“While we determine the full impact and continue to review activity, we have engaged the FBI to fully investigate this matter,” the statement added,
Since investigations are still underway, it is yet to be evaluated whether the malicious actors were able to lock the police officials out of their system and computer as an aftermath of the breach.
It is speculated that the Babuk had downloaded an ample amount of data from the hacked police internal systems.
Screenshots said to have been posted by the group on the dark web and shared on social media appeared to suggest it had gained access to information on criminal gang activity and police intelligence reports.
Specific details and statements are yet to be provided regarding the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department hacking incident.