Mcdonalds is the latest major corporation to be hit by a cyberattack. According to The Wall Street Journal, the bad actors who infiltrate its systems have successfully stolen information about customers and employees from its companies in the United States, South Korea and Taiwan. No customer data was stolen in the United States, in particular, but the hackers escaped with the contact details of American employees and franchisees. They also used themselves to store information, including the number of seats and the size of the play areas.
In South Korea and Taiwan, however, hackers have successfully stolen information about customers, including their emails, phone numbers, and shipping addresses. The names and contact details of Taiwanese employees were also stolen. The fast food chain insured The newspaper, however, that no customer payment information was affected in this data breach.
The company discovered the incident after hiring outside consultants to investigate unauthorized activity on an internal security system. McDonald’s cut unauthorized access a week after being identified for all three markets, and it credits the increased investment it has made in cybersecurity in recent years for being able to launch a swift response. It should be noted that investigators also flagged South Africa and Russia, and McDonald’s said it would notify those divisions of possible unauthorized access to their information.
“Going forward, McDonald’s will use the findings of the investigation as well as contributions from security resources to identify ways to further improve our existing security measures,” the fast food giant said in a statement.
Although the bad actors got rid of some sensitive information, the ransomware was not involved in this incident, unlike the attacks that hit JBS, Colonial Pipeline and many other companies. JBS, one of the largest meat suppliers in the United States, paid the equivalent of $ 11 million in ransom. Meanwhile, Colonial Pipeline paid 75 Bitcoins to its attackers (worth around $ 4.3 million at the time) after the hack led to fuel shortages on the east coast. That said, the GM was able to recover 63.7 Ransom Bitcoins paid by obtaining private key from hackers wallet.
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