A Kelowna real estate company that has been attacked by hackers is dealing with the aftermath of confidential information skimmed off and leaked online.
RE / MAX Kelowna has confirmed that its servers were attacked by a malicious group in early February during a software update.
Although the real estate company learned of the breach and resolved it within “minutes,” RE / MAX Kelowna owner Jerry Redman confirmed that some data had been stolen.
However, he said less than one percent of the data on the server was extracted – none of it from clients.
“There is no client data on this server … anyone with information on this server has been informed because they are all my employees or work for us,” said Redman.
At that point, the group believed that no data had leaked until they were notified in the days that followed.
On February 4th, the information was published online by a well-known ransomware group and can be viewed by anyone using the link. The group was known in the past for stealing data and storing it as a ransom, and threatened to post it online if payment was not received.
Redman said RE / MAX Kelowna was not held for ransom because the break-in was stopped.
However, some documents have been leaked online. A link shows a folder with 10,612 documents of different meaning; from quarterly statements to buyer / seller records and internal bank account information.
According to the website, thousands have viewed the link to date. The link to the online folder will remain live from February 10th.
Redman’s team is now focused on investigating the matter with the assistance of a cybersecurity company and they hope to learn more in the coming weeks. Safety is of the utmost importance, he said.
Emsisoft anti-malware threat researcher Brett Callow, who helped uncover the breach, said companies can significantly reduce the risk to their business by adhering to security best practices.
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