Cyber Ransom

Cyber Ransom

Cyber-ransom has been rampant in recent years as technology continues to advance. One of the recent cases was on Brenntag Distribution Company. The hacker group stole 150 GB of data from the company system and demanded $ 7.5 million of Bitcoin. The event took place in May 2021. The incident could have been prevented despite the hackers being quite good at what they did. One of the actions would be the company being so big and having a lot of data; it should have kept the system and the overall software up to date to prevent malicious individuals from penetrating and stealing the data.

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Brenntag paid the ransom demanded by DarkSide, who carried out the attack. Reports indicated that the payment was made on May 11, 2021. The decision to settle was in the hands of the company that had its information stolen, and it was for the safety of the customers and the other stakeholders (11 Alive, 2021). The negotiation leading to the decision to pay was between Brenntag and DarkSide, an organization that benefits from ransomware attacks.

The decision to pay was ethical because the company had a substantial amount of data stolen from the system that could be used for malicious activities. The company needs to assure the customers of some level of security. So if their data can be easily accessed, it would compromise the relationship between the company and the customer. The weakness was on the company’s side, so it was only suitable if they paid the price of not putting up a system entirely immune from such threats that would get the data into the wrong hand (Westbrook, 2021). It could be argued that DarkSide’s action was not ethical. Still, it was not their responsibility to keep the information safe for the company, so generally, it was only fitting to pay them the ransom. The company put up measures to protect the system.

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References

Westbrook, A. (2021). A Safe Harbor for Ransomware Payments: Protecting Stakeholders, Hardening Targets, and Defending National Security. New York University Journal of Law and Business, Forthcoming.

11 Alive. (2021, May 19). Colonial Pipeline CEO opens up about why he felt they had to give hackers a $4.4m ransom payment. YouTube. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1qGalm-LuM

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After watching the Wall St. Journal video with the Colonial Pipeline CEO, and reading the Law360 Expert Analysis article on how to manage cyber risk, do the following:

• Conduct Internet research and identify a company that was recently held for Cyber-ransom.
• Identify the company, why it was held ransom & what could/should have prevented it.
• Did the company pay a ransom?
• Who was responsible for the decision to pay/not pay?
• Was the decision to pay ethical? (To pay or not to pay)