Norsk Hydro, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers in the world and an electricity utility in Norway, has been hit by ransomware.
The Oslo-based company saw its entire world-wide network compromised by LockerGoga, a new addition to the seemingly endless variety of ransomware that’s prowling around on the internet of things.
Both ArsTechnica and TechCrunch have good write-ups regarding the incident.
As of right now (according to VirusTotal.com) a few of the big anti-virus software solutions have been updated to detect LockerGoga. That list includes our partner Cylance as well as other products like Kaspersky and Symantec.
What is LockerGoga?
Like most ransomware, LockerGoga encrypts data stored on an endpoint and blackmails the user/demands a ransom payment in turn for decryption tools.
The ransomware also adds file extensions (i.e. “.locked!?” or “.locked”) to each encrypted file. It also generates a “README-NOW.txt” file:
Interestingly enough (though I doubt there’s any correlation), the message displayed above is awfully similar to the one included in the RYUK ransomware that took out Jackson County, GA earlier this month. So… ♂️
We’ll keep you up to date regarding any new news as soon as we hear it.
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