Alabama Utility Hit by Ransomware Attack

An electric cooperative that services members in rural Alabama was hit by a ransomware attack over the weekend; though no data was compromised, customers will be temporarily unable to access their account information, according to the Dothan Eagle.

"We at Wiregrass Electric Cooperative hold member information in the highest regard, and we always do everything we can to protect our members’ information," the company’s CEO, Brad Kimbro, said in a press release. "We are thankful that no information has been accessed during this event."

WEC, which has about 22,000 members, is one of thousands of organizations to get hit by ransomware attacks over the weekend in at least 17 different countries. Analysis from the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft found that the malware, which exploited the software company Kaseya’s servers using a previously unknown vulnerability, was created by the Russia-linked group REvil. This organization was responsible for the attack on the meat processor JBS last month, and on Monday they offered on their website on the dark web to undo the damage done over the weekend in exchange for $70 million in cryptocurrency.

In a statement over the weekend, the FBI said that the agency "is investigating this situation and working with Kaseya, in coordination with [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], to conduct outreach to possibly impacted victims. We encourage all who might be affected to employ the recommended mitigations and for users to follow Kaseya's guidance to shut down VSA servers immediately. As always, we stand ready to assist any impacted entities."

According to Kaseya, as many as 1,500 businesses could have been compromised by the attack because many of the company’s customers provide IT services to various small businesses. 

"Our global teams are working around the clock to get our customers back up and running," Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola said in a statement on Monday, according to CNN. "We understand that every second they are shut down, it impacts their livelihood, which is why we're working feverishly to get this resolved."

Crowdstrike co-founder and former chief technical officer Dmitri Alperovitch told Axios that "this is without a doubt going to turn out to be the biggest, most destructive ransomware campaign that we've seen so far."

U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior VP Christopher Roberti added that "the U.S. government must take the fight to these foreign cybercriminal syndicates."

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