Online gambling business BetUs has been among the latest companies that had been targeted by a shady hacking group that is now holding the international data of the betting operator for ransom.
A few days ago, Maze, a self-described “crypto-ransomware” group, revealed the names of several companies, saying that it had managed to obtain considerable amounts of internal data from them. The online sportsbook BetUS that operates under a Curacao license, the French firm Bouygues Construction and Chubb, a cybersecurity insurance company, were among the ones affected by the data breach.
Now, on its websites, Maze has cited three compromised BetUS – casino@betus.com.pa, custhelp@betus.com.pa and newaccount@betus.com.pa. The hacking group also posted a couple of “proofs” of some of the data it claims to have obtained from the online gambling company. The size of the so-called proofs total about one gigabyte and involve technical files associated with the gambling software used by BetUS. Apart from that, the stolen data also includes a wide range of internal company documents, such as directorship changes, minutes of board meetings, some company executives’ passport scans, bank forms, etc.
For the time being, no personal information of BetUS customers has been unveiled as part of the proofs, though the hacking group may have preferred to deliberately hold off publishing such details while it is waiting to see whether the online gambling operator will decide to comply with the hackers’ ransom demands.
No Official Confirmation of the Data Breach Made by BetUS For Now
In any case, experts have warned that BetUS customers should be extra careful and make sure they change any shared passwords on other online websites as soon as possible. For now, it also remains unknown whether the online bookmaker has taken any steps to inform its customers about the data breach. The company has not yet commented on the situation.
The other two companies, mentioned above, which have been among the latest hacking targets of Maze, have released short statements on the matter, acknowledging there had been a data breach.
As mentioned above, the hacker group claims to have used ransomware to compromise the systems of the three companies and have stolen firms’ data. Following Maze’s revelations, an Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow shared that the claims have been published on the hacking group’s website. At the time, Maze has not provided any direct proof of the hacking attacks but Mr. Callow shared some facts that gave some credibility of the claims. He reminded that some of the past victims of the hacking group include governments, healthcare providers medical research companies, law firms, manufacturers, etc.
Unlike other hacker groups, Maze does not stick to the policy of public shaming. Instead, it demands a ransom payable in Bitcoin BTC to be paid from the affected parties in return to not publishing the stolen data. In some cases, a further payment for deleting the data is demanded by Maze, although there could not be any actual proof that the hacking group would actually keep their promise.
