The Olympus camera giant said yesterday that it was investigating a possible cyber security incident affecting its European computer network, as well as the Middle East and Africa.
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According to the Olympus company's announcement , as soon as they detected the suspicious activity, they mobilized the cybersecurity team and are trying to resolve the problem. As part of the investigation, they report that they have suspended data transfer to the affected systems and have informed the relevant external partners.
However, information from a person within the company who is aware of the incident, says that Olympus is "recovering" from a ransomware attack that started in the early hours of September 8. He goes on to say that there is a ransom note left by the criminals on the infected computers, which apparently comes from the ransomware group BlackMatter.
The ransom note also includes a web address on a site accessible only through the Tor Browser, known to be used by the BlackMatter team to communicate with its victims.
BlackMatter is a ransomware-as-a-service group that was founded as a successor to several ransomware groups, including DarkSide, which recently shut down after the high-profile Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack , and REvil, which has been silent for months after the Kaseya attack that flooded hundreds of companies with ransomware. Both attacks caught the attention of the US government, which promised to take action to ensure that no critical infrastructure is hit again.
Teams like BlackMatter act as ransomware-as-a-service, meaning they rent access to their infrastructure, which other teams use to launch attacks, while BlackMatter receives whatever ransom is paid.
The usual tactic of BlackMatter, as well as other ransomware groups, is to steal data from a company's network before encrypting it and later threatening to publish the files on the Internet if the decryption ransom is not paid.
Japan-based Olympus now manufactures optical and digital reproduction technology for the medical industry. Until recently, the company manufactured digital cameras and other electronics, until it sold the camera piece in January 2021.
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