Hackers leak wind turbine makers' data after ransomware attack

Personal data stolen from wind turbine maker Vestas by hackers in a ransomware attack last month has been made public.

A cyber security incident last month forced Vestas to shut down IT systems across multiple business units and locations to contain the issue.

The Danish company said it was able to continue operations but that data had been compromised.

"The hackers managed to retrieve data from the compromised internal file share systems and have made some of the compromised data public," Vestas said in a statement.

It added that the majority of compromised data includes personal information such as names, contact details and CVs but also some cases of more sensitive information such as social security numbers and bank account information.

"Due to the potential risk caused by the leak of personal data, Vestas encourages all employees and business partners to continue to stay vigilant of any indications of misuse of their personal data," it said.

Golden age

Cyberattacks are increasing in scale, sophistication, and scope. The last 12 months were ripe with major high-profile cyberattacks, such as the SolarWinds hack, attacks against the Colonial Pipeline, meat processing company JBS, and software firm Kaseya.

Pundits talk of a ransomware gold rush, with the number of attacks increasing over 90% in the first half of 2021 alone.

The prevalence of ransomware has forced governments to take multilateral action against the threat. It's likely a combined effort allowed to push the infamous REvil and BlackMatter cartels offline and arrest the Cl0p ransomware cartel members.

Gangs, however, either rebrand or form new groups. Most recently, LockBit 2.0 was the most active ransomware group with a whopping list of 203 victims in Q3 of 2021 alone.

An average data breach costs victims $4.24 million per incident, the highest in the 17 years. For example, the average cost stood at $3.86 million per incident last year, putting recent results at a 10% increase.