Doctor Web denies data theft allegations

Russian anti-malware company Doctor Webhas denied hackers' claims of stealing development and user data in September.

See also: Hawaii Health Center reveals data breach

In mid-September, the security company said it had thwarted a cyberattack targeting its infrastructure and had taken its systems offline to investigate the incident.

Doctor Web said at the time that it had decided to observe the attackers' movement after detecting the intrusion and that the attack had no impact on users' systems protected by the Dr.Web antivirus solution .

In a statement on Wednesday, the company revealed that the perpetrators were trying to blackmail it, but did not provide further details, citing an ongoing law enforcement investigation.

"We were able to immediately thwart the attack and then proceeded to disconnect our systems from the network for a thorough examination in accordance with our established security policy. The attackers intended to demand a ransom from Doctor Web, but we never negotiated with the perpetrators," the company said.

See also: Doctor Web: Russian security company suffered a breach

Referring to a Telegram post by the pro-Ukrainian hacktivist group DumpForums that claimed the breach led to the theft of 10 terabytes of data, Doctor Web said the attackers' claims are exaggerated.

"Most of the claims that appeared on Telegram are false. Our development environment and customer information have not been affected by the attack. Updates to the software module and virus database do not pose any threat to Dr.Web users," the company said.

However, Doctor Web also noted that it was analyzing screenshots posted by DumpForums on Telegram as evidence of data theft "to ensure that no part of our relevant data has been compromised."

The hacktivists, on the other hand, said they had access to the antimalware company's network for about a month, hacking into the company's GitLab environment, corporate email and development servers, various internal resources, and the company's domain controller.

See also: Dell: Allegations of two data breaches in a few days

Data theft has become one of the most critical problems of the modern technological era. It is a process in which malicious users gain unauthorized access to sensitive information, such as personal data, credit card numbers, or corporate data. The consequences can be devastating for both individuals and businesses, causing financial losses, reputational damage, and legal problems. Preventing data theft requires strong security measures, such as using strong passwords, encrypting data, and adopting best security practices by users.

Source: securityweek