Hackers demanded $ 5.9 million in cryptocurrency from a US farm company

The attackers gained access to 1 TB of the organization's internal data and threatened to publish it onfree access.

BlackMatter hackers demanded$ 5.9 million cryptocurrency buyout from Iowa-based American farming company New Cooperative. The attackers attacked the organization's network by encrypting more than 1 TB of the company's internal files, according to The Washington Post. According to the newspaper, the BlackMatter grouping may be associated with Russia. The hackers gained access to the source code of the soil mapping technology, development documents and invoices.

New Cooperative must pay funds by 25September, otherwise the attackers will publish the stolen data in the public domain. The company has already shut down its computer networks and is conducting an investigation.

Cybersecurity analysts believe thatBlackMatter may be one of the cells of the DarkSide hacker group, which hacked the Colonial Pipeline pipeline in May this year. Due to the attack, it was forced to stop fuel supplies to several densely populated American states. As a result, Colonial Pipeline paid the hackers about $ 5 million in bitcoins to restore access to the network.

In June, it became known that part of the stolen fromColonial Pipeline amount has been refunded. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbott said law enforcement had seized 63.7 bitcoins ($ 2.3 million) that had previously been sent to the DarkSide hacker group's wallet.

/p>

</p>