An anonymous attacker yesterday demanded a $250,000 ransom payment from Israeli cybersecurity company Cynet. The attacker claimed to have large amounts of the company's documents and published a small sample of the information, which did not include any especially sensitive data.
Among the documents published were an Excel file with the company's price list and what seems like a screenshot of the enterprise systems. The attacked claims to have much more information including passwords of Cynet's customers. The attacker describes the $250,000 being demanded as "the annual salary of a senior analyst."
Cynet is managing the incident with assistance, including from Brigadier General (res.) Tiran Fartouk, one of Israel's leading cybersecurity experts. It is believed that the information was exposed after an experimental server was not protected properly due to human error. The server contained, among other things, internal correspondence from the company, but no original code from Cybernet's customers. The incident is still in its early stages and it is still unclear how it will develop.
The anonymous assailant joined the Raid forum and has been publishing information there since October including from Chinese and Turkish companies, meaning the attacker is not specifically targeting Israel, as was the case in some other recent cyberattacks.
Cynet cofounder and CEO is veteran Israeli cybersecurity expert Eyal Gruner. The company, which was founded in 2015, has developed cyber protection systems for small and medium sized companies that do not have the resources to put together the required cybersecurity solutions. Cynet's product protects work stations, servers, and communications networks in one interface and installation. The company has raised $79 million to date.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 16, 2021.
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