- Southern Water avoids the question about the payment of ransomware
- February 2024 Attack saw the data of stolen customers in an apparent attack
- It is not clear whether the payment was made or not
Southern Water has avoided confirming or denying the claims that he paid a ransomware demand to computer pirates after an important cyber attack.
The news was learned that the company suffered a ransomware attack in February 2024 that, according to the reports, saw it lose many data to the attackers, data that ended up spilling in the dark network by an infamous ransomware operator known as Black Enough.
However, recently, someone leaked approximately 200,000 messages exchanged between members of Black Enough, which led to the Hudsonrock security firm to create a BlackBastagpt tool to help examine the data more easily.
Payment and other hallucinations
Journalists of The registration Now I have used the tool, in combination with raw chat data, to try to find out if Southern Water paid the rescue or not.
Apparently, the group demanded $ 3.5 million, which was too high for the water company, which allegedly asked to reduce the sale price to $ 750,000.
While Chat’s records do not clearly indicate if the terms were agreed, at one point a member supposedly said “these have already paid, do you remember?”
However The registration The notes that GPT halls up a lot, and that information should be taken with a salt grain. Upon arriving at Southern Water, he did not receive a clear response, with a spokesman who said: “As soon as we realized, more than a year ago, an illegal intrusion that affects our IT systems (without affecting our operations or services to customers), we report all the relevant bodies, including NCSC and disappointment. We and our advisors worked closely with NCSC throughout the incident.”
Southern Water is a public services company that offers drinking water and sewage services to customers in southern England, including Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Isle of Wight. It operates water treatment facilities and sewerage systems.
Black Enough was formed in 2022, and since then it has directed at least 500 organizations, with notable victims include Ascension Healthcare, Capita, ABB and the American Dental Association.
