Customers of the major bank Santander, which among other things has become a popular alternative for Swedes looking for a high savings rate, have had their user details stolen.
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Also ticketing services
In addition to banking customers of Santander, customers of Ticketmaster, which sells tickets for concerts and other experiences, have also been affected.
It started with a series of breaches against users in April, and the attacks were carried out by an American hacker group via the users’ accounts.
North American hacker group
The American hacker group is called UNC5537 and is attacking accounts provided by the Snowflake cloud service, which is used by both Santander and Ticketmaster’s business customers.
The idea of the attacks is, as often, to expose the users to extortion – so-called ransomware. If users want their accounts and login options back, they have to pay a ransom to the cybercriminals.
Infostealer – can resell your data
The disclosure was made by the online forum Arstechnica and was reported by Sweclockers.
The users’ data was stolen via a so-called infostealer – a malicious software that steals information, as the name suggests.
The data that is stolen can also be sold on to other actors, such as other hacker groups or other companies.
In step with technological development and with AI tools that are becoming increasingly sophisticated and user-friendly, the risk of the spread of increasingly complicated hacker attacks also increases. Among other things, a new, powerful tool for hackers who want to steal information online was discovered on Russian Dark Web forums.
Swedish authorities warn that the cyber defense infrastructure is growing more slowly than the criminals’ development of new methods to attack the law-abiding.
It can be found, among other things, in MSB’s latest report on cyber defense that was published in the spring.
What should be done?
Customers with user accounts at the affected Santander bank or with Ticketmaster should contact them themselves to investigate whether their user details are compromised.
That’s what the cloud service writes Snowflake on its own website, as one of the tips listed for users who want to increase their internet security.
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