The telephone company did not pay the more than 100 bitcoins demanded by the MedusaBlog hackers and that is why they published the information.
The sensitive data of millions of customers of Digitel, one of the main telephone companies in Venezuela, was exposed on the Internet. A group of hackers released private information that was hijacked in a ransomware attack 10 days ago.
According to information from "VE Sin Filtro", an initiative dedicated to monitoring hacking cases and similar cases, the data that was kidnapped was published because the attackers, from the MedusaBlog group, did not receive the USD 5 million in $BTC that they demanded.
“The information released would include the list of employees, identification documents, financial and tax documents, reports, invoices, contracts, subscriber agreements and their personal data,” says VE Sin Filtro.
The Digitel hack became known on February 2, when the MedusaBlog group claimed responsibility for the attack that led to the kidnapping of the telephone company's private information.
At that time, the hacking group gave the company a week to pay the ransom. The hackers demanded the sum of USD 5 million expressed in BTC to not reveal the information kidnapped in the attack. This is a ransom valued at 100.3 bitcoins, according to the price of this Monday, February 12.
MedusaBlog has a history of demanding payments in bitcoin. Recently, these hackers disclosed the private data of the National Securities Commission ( #CNV ) of Argentina, after an attack that was not rescued. The hackers asked for $500,000 in BTC in exchange for deleting the hijacked information.
Because it is unlikely to know the true impact of sensitive network data leaks, it is recommended that Digitel users proceed to change their passwords, change the phone number of linked services, and also safeguard their emails and accounts on different platforms. Likewise, it is advisable to review the privacy settings of devices and applications.