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Crown investigates data hack

Crown says it has notified law enforcement of a potential data breach by a ransomware gang

Crown says it has notified law enforcement of a potential data breach by a ransomware gang Photo: AAP

Crown Resorts has confirmed it is investigating a potential data breach after a ransomware gang claimed it had accessed the company’s data.

In a statement posted on its website on Monday, Crown said it had notified law enforcement of the potential breach.

“Crown is one of many organisations who use the third-party file transfer service, GoAnywhere, which has been impacted by a data breach globally,” the statement said.

“We were recently contacted by a ransomware group who claim they have illegally obtained a limited number of Crown files. 

“We are investigating the validity of this claim as a matter of priority.”

Crown is the latest in a growing list of companies targeted by a ransomware gang that exploited a weakness in GoAnywhere’s file transfer software.

“We can confirm no customer data has been compromised and our business operations have not been impacted,” a Crown representative said.

“We are continuing to work with law enforcement and have notified our gaming regulators as part of the ongoing investigation and will provide relevant updates, as necessary.”

A host of global firms and government institutions have reported cybersecurity incidents linked to GoAnywhere – a managed file transfer (MFT) software offered by United States cybersecurity firm Fortra – in the past few weeks.

The personal data of mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd’s former and current Australian employees was also targeted by the cyber-criminal group.

Rio Tinto payroll information, such as pay slips and overpayment letters of a small number of employees from January 2023, was possibly seized by the group, a staff memo cited last week by Reuters said.

Rio Tinto said the cyber-criminal group had threatened to release the data onto the dark web.

“To date, none of the records described above have been released and we still do not know if the cybercriminal group holds these records or not,” the staff memo said.

Hitachi Energy, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, said last week a ransomware attack by the “CL0P” group on GoAnywhere could have resulted in unauthorised access to employee data in some countries.

File-sharing software has historically been a target for cybercriminals.

Back in 2021, vulnerabilities in the servers of California-based Accellion were exploited by the CL0P group, leading to data breaches in Morgan Stanley, Kroger Co, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and other high-profile institutions.

-AAP with Reuters

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