Popular Car Company Becomes Next Target in $20 Million Dollar Ransomware Attack

Stu Sjouwerman | Feb 18, 2021

Kia Ransomware AttackIn an unfortunate situation popular car company Kia Motors America recently made headlines of a possible ransomware attack and the company was demanded to pay $20 Million ransom from a cybercriminal gang in order to not leak stolen data.

It was reported by Bleeping Computer earlier this week that the car company suffered a major IT outage that affected all of their technology applications. A customer tweeted that they were told from a dealership that the outage is due to the ransomware attack. 

The alleged ransomware group responsible for this attack was DoppelPaymer ransomware, a popular gang that steals unencrypted files before stealing the encrypted device. They also leak data on a site to further pressure the victim to pay the ransom. Below is a recent example of just that: 

Source: Bleeping Computer

Kia Motors America released a statement with the following, "KMA is aware of IT outages involving internal, dealer and customer-facing systems, including UVO. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers and are working to resolve the issue and restore normal business operations as quickly as possible." 

Make sure your organization is not the next victim of ransomware. New-school security awareness training can teach your users how to spot and report any suspicious activity. 

Bleeping Computer has the full story

UPDATE:  KIA DENIES RANSOMWARE ATTACK!  MORE HERE

Topics: Ransomware

Ransomware Simulator

Free downloadable software tool

Threat actors are constantly coming out with new strains to evade detection. Is your network effective in blocking all of them when employees fall for social engineering attacks?

RanSim gives you a quick look at the effectiveness of your existing network protection. RanSim will test 24 ransomware infection scenarios and 1 cryptomining infection scenario and show you if a workstation is vulnerable.

RansIm-Monitor3Here's how it works:

  • 100% harmless simulation of real ransomware and cryptomining infections
  • Does not use any of your own files
  • Tests 25 types of infection scenarios
  • Just download the installer and run it
  • Results in a few minutes!

Get RanSim!

Secure the Digital Workforce: Human + AI

KnowBe4 empowers the modern workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by more than 70,000 organizations worldwide, KnowBe4 is the pioneer of digital workforce security, securing both AI agents and humans. The KnowBe4 Platform provides attack simulation and training, collaboration security, and agent security powered by AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents) and a proprietary Risk Score. The platform leverages 15 years of behavioral data to combat advanced threats including social engineering, prompt injection, and shadow AI. By securing humans and agents, KnowBe4 leads the industry in workforce trust and defense.