- Hackers reportedly leaked data on 5 million Qantas customers after a failed extortion attempt.
- Attackers leveraged Salesloft-Salesforce integrations to access and steal customer data.
- 44 companies were affected, including Disney, Toyota, McDonald’s and Vietnam Airlines.
Australia’s largest airline, Qantas, is one of 44 companies whose sensitive customer data ended up on the dark web. Cybercriminals now have easy access to the contact and flight information of millions of people, which they can use for phishing, identity theft, fraud, and other attacks.
Last summer, a group of hackers called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters broke into Salesforce accounts belonging to hundreds of organizations across different industries, although Salesforce itself was not breached.
The attackers compromised Salesloft accounts that were integrated with Salesforce and exploited linked API tokens and OAuth connections to enter Salesforce environments and exfiltrate customer data.
“Don’t be the next headline”
The group attempted to extort money from Qantas and offered to delete the stolen files in return. The airline, however, refused to even discuss the matter with the attackers, telling Guardian Australia that it “will not engage, negotiate or pay any extortion demands.”
In response, Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters posted the stolen files on the dark web. The file includes personal records of 5 million Qantas customers, including people’s names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and frequent flyer numbers. It was said that credit card details, financial information and passport details were not stolen.
“Don’t be the next headline, you should have paid the ransom,” the group posted on its data breach site.
But apparently Qantas is not the only company whose data was leaked in this wave. Citing analysts from cybersecurity team Intel 471, The Guardian reported that 44 companies were included in the breach, including Gap, Vietnam Airlines, Toyota, Disney, McDonald’s, Ikea and Adidas.
Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters is a group made up of members of Scattered Spider, Lapsus$, and ShinyHunters. Shortly after the Salesloft/Salesforce breach, they announced “going dark,” which the cybersecurity community interpreted as fear of too much publicity. Obviously, it didn’t last long.
Through the guardian
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