More victims of the MOVEit hack have come to light, with a total of over 130 organizations and millions of individuals believed to be impacted to date.
Brett Callow, threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, has been monitoring the campaign, which exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Progress Software’s MOVEit Transfer managed file transfer (MFT) product to gain access to data belonging to organizations that had been using the solution.
Callow is aware of 138 organizations known to have been impacted by the campaign, with the data breaches resulting in the personal information of more than 15 million people being compromised. Those numbers will likely increase in the upcoming period as more victims emerge.
The Russia-linked cybercrime group known for operating the Cl0p ransomware has taken credit for the attack, claiming that it had been the only threat actor to know about the MOVEit zero-day exploit before it was patched.
The hackers claim to have hit many organizations and they have started naming those that have refused to pay up or enter negotiations. They have recently named over 60 entities that appear to have been targeted through the MOVEit vulnerability, which the group may have been testing since 2021.
The list includes major organizations such as Shell (they have already leaked data allegedly stolen from the energy giant), Siemens Energy, Schneider Electric, UCLA, Sony, EY, PwC, Cognizant, and AbbVie. Law firms Kirkland & Ellis and K&L Gates have also been added to Cl0p’s leak website.
Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric have confirmed for SecurityWeek that they have been targeted.
EY has also confirmed being targeted and told SecurityWeek that it’s investigating the incident.
“We have verified that the vast majority of systems which use this transfer service across our global organization were not compromised. We are manually and thoroughly investigating systems where data may have been accessed,” the financial services giant said in an emailed statement. “Our priority is to communicate to those impacted, as well as the relevant authorities and our investigation is ongoing.”
UCLA also admitted that the vulnerability was exploited to gain access to its MOVEit platform and said it notified impacted individuals, but pointed out that it did not view this as a ‘ransomware incident’ — likely because file-encrypting malware has not been deployed in the attack. It also noted that there is no evidence of other campus systems being affected.
Emsisoft’s Callow said there are also over a dozen government organizations that have been caught up in the incident. The list includes the US Department of Energy and the Health Department. The New York City Department of Education and the Oregon DMV recently also confirmed being hit. The National Student Clearinghouse and the schools working with it have also been affected.
However, the cybercriminals claimed on their website that they have deleted data obtained from more than 30 government and government-related organizations as they are not interested in such entities, highlighting that their motivation is purely financial.
Related: Norton Parent Says Employee Data Stolen in MOVEit Ransomware Attack
Related: MOVEit Customers Urged to Patch Third Critical Vulnerability
Related: New MOVEit Vulnerabilities Found as More Zero-Day Attack Victims Come Forward
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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