WordFly, a digital marketing platform for arts, entertainment, culture, and sports organizations has experienced a cyberattack.
The company’s platform has been down for more than two weeks since the breach on the 10th of July.
The information was confirmed by their Twitter account which posted WordFly remains unavailable, Work continues this week to restore our environment. We encountered a challenge over the weekend requiring additional days to resolve. Please plan accordingly if you need to send an email before Aug 01.
What Happened to WordFly
The Intelligence reaching company reveals that the hackers had exported email addresses and other data their customers use to communicate with their subscribers using WordFly services.
Kirk Bentley, head of Business Development at WordFly said The incident was propagated by a bad actor who conducted ransomware on WordFly. It resulted in the encryption of WordFly application.
Bentley also explained that the threat actors deleted the data on July 15, hinting that the company might have agreed to pay the ransom, We have no evidence to suggest, before the bad actor deleted the data, that the data was leaked or disseminated elsewhere.
The common tactic for ransomware gangs is the double extortion tactic. It is where the owners are locked from accessing their files and the hackers threaten to auction off the data to the public that was stolen if ransomware was not settled.
If the ransom is paid, the hackers delete the data they have stolen.
Although, even if the company paid the hackers, restoring normal operations hasn’t been successful.
A WordFly client, Toronto Symphony Orchestra(TSO) disclosed to their customers the information concerning their email providers(WordFly), incase any personal information is misused.
In addition, they emphasizing the contents of personal information. Personal information potentially impacted includes your name, email address, TSO Patron ID, and information about your account.
It may also include personal information certain patrons have volunteered to the TSO when responding to a survey, such as demographic information and opinions about the TSO.
