A group of Russian hackers, Revil, took control of the servers of Gaming Partners International, a leading provider of currency and equipment for casinos around the world. The attackers have encrypted 540 gigabytes of confidential data and are asking for a huge ransom in exchange for regaining control of the servers.
This was reported by one of the members of the hacker group under the nickname UNKN. In an interview with Elisey Boguslavsky, he stated:
“Absolutely all the company's servers and work computers are hacked and encrypted. We have all the most important data from all servers including Macau and Mexico. If you don’t pay, all the information from your servers will become publicly available, that will bring huge losses to all customers to whom you provide your products. ”
The tactics of hacking and encrypting data on company servers is an increasingly common approach used by hacker groups, and in these situations victims are faced with one of two options: pay without any guarantee that the stolen data will not be monetized or published in the future, or refuse from payment and sell your data at auction.
Even if GPI agrees to pay a hefty ransom, can REvil destroy data after payment? Brett Kellow, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, says you can't be sure of any outcome. He stressed that he personally does not believe that hackers will simply destroy or dispose of information that they could use or even monetize in the future.
GPI has so far refrained from commenting. The gaming news portal gamingpost.net is trying to keep its finger on the pulse of events.
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