Attackers gained access to 1 TB of internal data of the organization and threatened to publish it in the public domain.
Hackers from the BlackMatter group demanded a $ 5.9 million ransom in cryptocurrency from the American farm company New Cooperative from Iowa.
The attackers attacked the organization’s network by encrypting more than 1 TB of the company’s internal files, according to The Washington Post .
According to the publication, the BlackMatter grouping may be associated with Russia. Hackers gained access to the source code of the soil mapping technology, development documents and invoices.
New Cooperative must pay the funds by September 25, otherwise the attackers will publish the stolen data in the public domain. The company has already shut down its computer networks and is investigating.
Cybersecurity analysts believe BlackMatter may be one of the cells of the DarkSide hacker group, which hacked into the Colonial Pipeline in May this year .
Due to the attack, it was forced to stop fuel supplies to several densely populated American states. As a result, Colonial Pipeline paid the hackers about $ 5 million in bitcoin to restore access to the network.
In June, it became known that part of the money stolen from the Colonial Pipeline had been returned .
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbott said law enforcement had seized 63.7 bitcoin ($ 2.3 million) that had previously been sent to the DarkSide hacker group’s wallet.
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