On January 16, Sportadmin, an app used by around one million adults and children from 1,700 sports associations, was hit by a data breach. On Wednesday, DN reported that a hacker group is threatening to leak personal data unless a ransom is paid. On Thursday, the newspaper reported that several children with protected information are included in the material.
The attackers have obtained data containing personal information. That is also the scenario we have always assumed and acted upon. We still cannot confirm the extent, says Jennie Everhed.
The company is following the recommendations from the police, authorities, and security experts not to communicate or negotiate with the hackers. Associations and members are urged to be extra vigilant about contact attempts and not respond to unknown phone numbers and emails, all to counter phishing.
We expect the data to be released in some form within the next few days, which is also what the attackers have communicated on public forums, says Jennie Everhed.
After money
Can you say anything about what they are demanding?
I don't know more than what is posted on public forums. We have not received any demands for a ransom or similar.
The fact that around one million users may be affected is very significant, according to IT security expert Jonas Lejon.
I don't know if we, at least not officially, have seen such a large-scale breach in Sweden, he says to TT.
Extortion attacks of this kind can occur in several stages. The hackers are primarily after money, according to Lejon, and getting companies and individuals to pay to prevent information from being leaked.
Site on Darknet
These ransomware groups encrypt and make systems unusable. It's a type of extortion. The second part of the extortion is precisely this threat to release data. It becomes triple extortion when you contact people, partners, or customers, he says.
According to DN, it is Ransomhub that is threatening to leak the information on its site via Darknet.
This group has been active for about a year. Like many of these groups, they operate in countries that perhaps turn a blind eye and there is a clear Russian connection, says Jonas Lejon.
