Cybersecurity is not a game. Cyber attacks are for REAL. They can really hurt you and they can cost you too much.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/maastricht-university-wound-up-earning-money-from-its-ransom-payment/
"Maastricht University (UM), a Dutch university with more than 22,000 students, said last week that it had recovered the ransom paid after a ransomware attack that hit its network in December 2019.
After a thorough investigation of the incident, the attack was linked by cybersecurity company Fox-IT with a financially motivated hacker group tracked as TA505 (or SectorJ04), known for primarily targeting retail and financial organizations since at least Q3 2014.
The hackers infiltrated the university's systems via phishing e-mails in mid-October and deployed Clop ransomware payloads on 267 Windows systems on December 23, after moving laterally through the network.
One week later, on December 30, the university decided to pay the ransom to have its files decrypted after deciding that rebuilding all infected systems from scratch or creating a decryptor were not viable options.
UM said at the time that it paid a 30 bitcoin ransom (roughly €200,000 at the time) for the ransomware decryptor, which allowed the university to avoid delaying exams and losing all the research, educational, and staff data, as well as info on salary payments for approximately 4,500 employees."
"However, as UM recently revealed, in a 'remarkable development,' the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service traced and seized a wallet containing the cryptocurrency paid by the university as ransom in 2019."
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