Anodot hack leaves more than a dozen hacked companies facing extortion

Hackers have reportedly stolen data from at least a dozen companies after a breach at a business monitoring software maker AnodotThis leaves its clients vulnerable to blackmail and at risk of their data being published online.

sleeping computer, Among the first to report Anodot breach, and BBC News Both reported that the ShinyHunters hacking group was threatening to release stolen data if its ransom demands were not met.

The hack is the latest example of hackers targeting software used by giant companies in an attempt to steal sensitive data from multiple companies at once.

Anodot, which helps its business customers detect service outages and other issues that may impact their ability to generate revenue, said On its status page The incident began on April 4, when the company’s data connectors stopped working, preventing its customers from accessing their data stored on the cloud.

According to reports, hackers hacked into Anodot and stole the authentication codes used by its customers to access their data in the cloud. Using these codes, hackers stole large amounts of customer data from cloud storage.

One cloud storage provider, Snowflake, has blocked Anodot customers from accessing their cloud data after detecting “unusual activity” in some data stores, Bleeping Computer said.

One of the affected companies is said to be Rockstar Games, the game’s manufacturer grand theft auto and Max Payne Video games, for everyone Gaming news outlet Kotaku.

“We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach. This incident has no impact on our organization or our players,” Rockstar spokesperson Murphy Siegel told TechCrunch in an email statement.

Rockstar games were too It was breached in 2022When hackers stole and posted an early trailer for the company’s upcoming flagship game, Grand Theft Auto VI.

Snowflake did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment on Monday. Glassbox, which owns Anodot, also did not respond to a request for comment.

ShinyHunters are a group of largely English-speaking hackers known for stealing data and blackmailing their victims. Hackers are known for their social engineering skills, such as impersonating IT help desk and support staff to trick employees at large companies into giving them access to accounts or systems on the company’s network.

The group targets companies that store large amounts of data in cloud storage. In the past year, ShinyHunters has focused on companies like Anodot, stupidity and Cellloftwhich allows its customers to access and analyze large data sets in their cloud storage, in an attempt to steal passwords and tokens. In some cases, the stolen data contained codes that allowed hackers to infiltrate other companies later.