K -Electric, the sole electricity provider for Karachi in Pakistan, was attacked by the perpetrators of the Netwalker ransomware, leading to the disruption of billing processes and online services.
K-Electric is Pakistan's largest electricity supplier, serving 2.5 million customers and employing over 10 thousand employees.
Since September 7, K-Electric customers have been unable to access online services for account .
K-Electric attempted to address the issue by redirecting users through a staging site, but the difficulties continued.
The ransomware researcher, who goes by the pseudonym Ransom Leaks, was the one who first publicized the attack. The researcher was informed by a local Pakistani security firm that this Netwalker ransomware attack was affecting K-Electric's internal services.
According to security firm Rewterz, the ransomware attack occurred on the morning of September 7 and disrupted K-Electric's online billing services, but not the power supply.
Netwalker ransomware operators demand $3.8 million
K-Electric has not commented on the incident, but multiple sources confirm that the Netwalker ransomware hackers are behind the attack. On a Tor payment page, the ransomware operators are demanding $3.85 million from the company power. If the ransom is not paid within seven days, the ransom will increase to $7.7 million.
The Tor payment site also includes a page called “Stolen Data” that states that the operators of the Netwalker ransomware stole unencrypted files from K-Electric before carrying out the attack. This page does not disclose the type and amount of data stolen by the hackers.
Since the summer of 2019, Netwalker has been continuously infecting new victims. Since March 2020, its operators have begun recruiting specialized hackers and focusing entirely on corporate networks. Since then, we have seen more and larger attacks.
According to a McAfee, this new tactic allowed the ransomware gang to earn over $25 million in just five months.
Recent Netwalker ransomware attacks have targeted Argentine immigration offices, US government agencies , and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
