In an unprecedented move, the hacking group Vice Society has compromised what appears to be all the information of the inhabitants of the city of Rolle, located on Lake Geneva, in Switzerland. The threat actors disclosed the leak through a dark web platform.
Apparently, this is all part of a ransomware attack allegedly deployed against Rolle’s government offices, although the context of this leak is very unclear. What authorities have been able to conclude is that the stolen data was posted on the dark web in mid-July, so the attack should be close to those dates.
Although authorities initially denied the detection of any unusual activity, the city’s mayor confirmed that this incident is a ransomware attack. It is mentioned that Julien Bocquet, Rolle’s director of administration, had been denied due to the ongoing investigation.
As mentioned, the criminals managed to gain access to a server in the city, gaining persistence for a few months to extract piles of information without being detected by the administrators of the affected network. Cybersecurity experts say the leak includes emails from the mayor and his team, as well as documentation related to the city’s financial planning.
Other reports indicate that the hackers would have accessed all kinds of confidential information of the inhabitants of Rolle, which would undoubtedly be a disastrous incident for all the people who inhabit this city.
About Vice Society, experts point out that this is a ransomware group active for only a few months but with an extensive history of victims, including public and private organizations on at least three continents. A Cisco Talos report noted that this group focuses especially on attacking academic institutions at all levels.
Although they have already deployed multiple attacks, the cybersecurity community still doesn’t know much about Vice Society, so it’s difficult to determine what their attack methods are. One theory about this group points out that they are engaged in exploiting known flaws to compromise the affected networks and steal information as part of the ransomware scheme.
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.