A cyber attack has been affecting the European locations of the German company Mediamarkt since Monday morning. According to RTL Nieuws, the hackers have demanded 50 million dollars in Bitcoin. The cyber attack on yesterday affected over a thousand branches. The floor was first published by a Dutch news organization, which said their conclusions were based on internal emails obtained through a hack.
RTL says that the cyber criminal Hive is behind the attack and demands 50 million US dollars or 43 million euros in Bitcoin. Negotiations are said to be under way, but a Belgian Mediamarkt spokesman told De Standaard that these were “rumors”.
The emails allegedly stated that store computers could no longer be used and that employees were asked to remove the internet cables from the cash registers and not to restart the systems.
An international report by the insurer Hiscox last May showed that more than four in ten (or 42 percent) Belgian companies had been affected by at least one cyber attack in the past year.
“Right now you are negotiating with a criminal organization. You never know whether you will get your encrypted data back or whether the organization will not leave any traces, ”Katrien Eggers from the Center for Cybersecurity told De Standaard.
Demanding the ransom in bitcoin is not uncommon. At the beginning of the year, an Antwerp company paid hackers over 250,000 euros in Bitcoin after a cyber attack, although the Center for Cybersecurity has advised against paying ransom to cyber criminals for years.
Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $ 68,513 in early Asian trading on Tuesday, and the total value of all cryptocurrencies topped $ 3 trillion on Monday, according to Belga news agency.
Bitcoin rose 3.2% and Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market size, rose 1.6% to $ 4,814.
“Both cryptocurrencies have more than doubled since June and are up nearly 70% against the dollar since early October,” said “The momentum has accelerated since a futures-based Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund was launched in the US last month, the “Has raised expectations for flow-induced gains.”
Some investors believe that cryptocurrencies are a way to protect yourself from the inflation that is rising in Europe and North America. According to CoinGecko, a website that tracks the market for more than 10,000 cryptocurrencies, the cryptocurrency market was worth $ 3.081 billion on Tuesday around 10:00 a.m. Belgian time.
Summary of the news:
- Hackers are demanding $ 50 million in Bitcoin
- Check out all the news and articles on the latest security updates.
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