Ransomware remains one of the main cybersecurity threats for any individual or company. Vulnerability testing specialists report a serious ransomware infection that has crippled all computer operations in Nunavut, a remote Canadian territory.
In a statement, the local government said,
“All government services that depend on access to digital resources have
been affected by a sophisticated infection”.
At the moment, basic public services, such as
electricity, have not been compromised, Premier Joe Savikataaq said; “Our
vulnerability testing team has told us that there may be some failures when our
systems are re-established,” the premier added. However, it is anticipated
that the restoration of the systems could be a highly complex process for the
administration of Nunavut, an area comprising huge territorial extension
(almost 2 million km2), but which has only 35 thousand inhabitants.
Although the government of the region did not
explicitly mention what kind of computer threat it is facing, local media
accessed a copy of the ransom note found on Nunavut’s systems, which is in fact
identical to the note delivered in the infections of the DoppelPaymer
ransomware.
Vulnerability testing specialists at security
firm Emsisoft believe this incident could be related to ransomware attacks
detected by government organizations in different US territories. According to
these reports, ransomware attacks in the US have decreased markedly, so
attackers could be looking for a new victim, in this case, municipalities in
Canada.
“Organizations in the US have better
measures to protect against these incidents, so threat actors could move their
operations against other, less complex targets,” the company’s report
says.
This has been a hectic start to the week on
cybersecurity issues for many companies and government bodies in various parts
of the world. Just a few hours ago, specialists from the International
Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) reported what appears to be a ransomware
campaign against some Spanish organizations; one of the first victims was the
broadcaster Cadena
SER, whose listeners reported constant failures in the transmissions.
