Australian Manufacturing Ransomware Attack, 7 June 2024

Panasonic Australia confirms cyber incident following Akira ransomware claim

Akira claims breached – contracts, project files stolen, and other confidential information.

Source: Panasonic Australia confirms cyber incident following Akira ransomware claim | cyberdaily.au

View more incidents relating to the Manufacturing sector and incidents relating to Ransomware.

“Panasonic Australia recently experienced a security incident on our network, and we took immediate action to secure our systems and initiate a thorough investigation by forensic IT specialists. We are satisfied that the Panasonic network is secure, and our day-to-day operations are continuing as per normal,” a Panasonic spokesperson told Cyber Daily.

In their dark web post, Akira claims to have breached Panasonic’s cybersecurity and says the group will share the files they have stolen. They assert the files contain information about projects and confidential agreements, among other data. The group indicated it will come up with a catchy name for the dump and then make it available for downloading.

Panasonic Australia informed Cyber Daily that a security incident has occurred, but the company states there is no evidence that any data has, in fact, been taken.

Akira ransomware actors have used known Cisco vulnerabilities like CVE-2020-3259 and CVE-2023-20269 to breach organizations through virtual private network (VPN) services that did not have multifactor authentication enabled. The hackers also use spear phishing campaigns and other tools to breach organizations. Once inside, they typically disable security software as a way to avoid detection while moving laterally.