Hacker (Netwalker Ransomware) Hacked K Electric System & Demanding $3.8 Million Ransom
KE- (Karachi Electric), the power supply company’s IT system has been hacked by the hacker called Netwalker Ransomware on Monday 7th September 2020 and remains hacked on the fourth day as well. Online customer service accounts and distributing billing systems remain inaccessible for a long time. The company said in a statement that: “The KE teams have initiated consultation with international information security experts and are also collaborating with local authorities in this regard.”
On Wednesday the company issued another statement telling customers to expect disruption to some online services but didn’t mention the actual hacking in detail. Said the company: “All critical customer services including bill payment solutions and 118 call-center are operational and fully functional, to ensure the integrity of our systems, as a precautionary measure, we have isolated few non-critical services. As such customers may experience some disruption in accessing duplicate bills from the KE website.”
As the company official has acknowledged the Hacking of their system. ‘BleepingComputer’ an Information security and technology news publication agency published this story with the headline “Pakistan’s largest private electricity provider, K-Electric, hit by Netwalker ransomware.”
The term Ransomware is relatively new in the world of Hacking and a new way to get access to the targeted system by injecting malicious code and encrypts all the data in the system. Once when the data encrypts the files become unreadable and ask key to decrypts. The decryption needs key and the hackers demand huge money in return to provide the decryption key. The payment is usually done via an online payment platform.
The Netwalker is demanding $3.8 million ransom from KE (Karachi Electric) to pay before 15th September 2020 and if KE is unable to pay than this demand will be $7 million ransom.
KE didn’t share the detail of the attempted hack. The main concern for the customer remains on whether any data was leaked, and if leaked whether that data was encrypted or not?
KE has access to the customer’s address, CNIC, NTN and also printed on the bill as well, if you pay online, lots of other information are also accessible to the KE system.
“Financial data is linked to your CNIC (including with bank accounts, credit card). Many consumers pay their bills online. This is sensitive information. NIC details can reveal the date of birth, your mother’s name (in records) and place of birth. This makes you more vulnerable. If any point hackers [in any data breach] are not given ransom, they can sell this to the dark web and this can have repercussions.” Said Shahzad Ahmed, director Bytes For All (NGO that works on technology and human rights.)