The biggest telephone company in Argentina has been attacked, and the cyber attackers are requesting 7.5 million dollars worth of Monero. On the 15th of July, the attack began, and the employees thought it was a little IT problem. The company’s IT systems are said to have been crippled by the hack.
The company had directed its staff not to open emails or files until further notice. Alex Kruger a Tweep tweeted on July 18, that the Hackers threatened that if their demands are not met, there would be further actions.
In the same Twitter post, there were some images shared, which suggested that the Hackers want the Monero to be paid before July 21st or the ransom would be doubled, and the networks would not be opened if the company refuses to pay the ransom before the given date.
The company was hacked after the Twitter attack that happened last week and the crypto donation fraud that was connected to it. Victims were asked to donate in Bitcoin by the scammers who could easily be traced. Nevertheless, claims were made b my the London based blockchain analysis provider-firm Elliptic that an application called wasabi used coinjoin mixing to mix a part of the App attack connected Bitcoin.
Alternately, Monero is privacy-centric, and that is why it has been removed from the list by some exchanges. Yet, people are in doubt about the surprising amount requested and why they chose Monero for payments.
Creator and Chief executive officer of Mana security, Tim Ismilyaev, proclaim that the coin liquidity on exchanges is low, and that renders it not ideal for large withdrawal. He says this is one of the reasons why 99% of ransomware attacks use Bitcoin.
It is also very unusual to request for 7.5 million dollars in Monero Ismilyaev added- a daily trade volume is about 13% and would crucially affect the price. He also proposed that there could be more reasons for the attack.
Source: News.bitcoin
