The infamous RansomHouse ransomware group said it breached the internal network of South African telecommunications company Cell C and stole confidential data from the company’s systems.
In a data security incident notice, Cell C said that it detected suspicious activity in its internal network last year and launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.
On December 28, Cell C determined that some of its customer data was accessed and stolen by malicious actors. The compromised data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, driver’s license numbers, banking details, passport details and more.
“The attack exploited a vulnerability to gain unauthorised access to a server within our corporate network. Immediate steps were taken to contain the issue,” Cell C added.
The RansomHouse ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Cell C and listed it as a victim on its data leak site. According to cyber security firm Malwarebytes, the group offered to sell the data to the highest bidder on the dark web and if the sale didn’t occur, it would publish the stolen data on its data leak site.
Acknowledging the claims of the threat actor, Cell C said that the hacker group that infiltrated its network identified itself as RansomHouse.
“Cell C is now aware that the data compromised in the recent cybersecurity incident has been unlawfully disclosed by RansomHouse, the threat actor claiming responsibility. This follows a previously reported incident involving unauthorised access to unstructured data in some parts of our IT environment.
“Given that this information has now been published by RansomHouse, we urge you to take steps to protect yourself from phishing, or potential fraud or identity theft,” said Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes.
