Evolve Bank & Trust, a crypto-industry-friendly bank, has admitted to leaking 33 TB of data as a result of an attack by the LockBit ransomware virus associated with a group of hackers from Russia.
According to an updated statement, at the end of May, some of the institution's systems stopped working properly due to "unauthorized activity." Presumably, the attackers gained access to the company's network when one of the employees inadvertently clicked on a malicious link.
With the help of the specialists involved, the bank's team managed to stop the attack by May 31.
Evolve Bank did not pay the ransom, recovered the data encrypted by the extortionist from backups, launched an investigation and contacted law enforcement agencies.
However, hackers downloaded an array of information that was posted online. The files contain personal information of most of the bank's customers and employees, including names, social security numbers, accounts and contacts. Evolve Bank assured that this does not threaten users' funds.
Fintech Business Weekly (FBW) reporters published a report on the incident a day earlier of the bank's redacted official statement. In only one studied file, they found 155,586 accounts on Bitfinex, Nomad, Copper Banking Juno Finance and others. A random check confirmed that the "leaked" information is reliable.
"I can't remember ever leaking such a volume of personal consumer and commercial financial data, which then became publicly available," a cybersecurity expert commented to the publication.
FBW also noted that Evolve Bank did not notify partner services about the incident according to the rules. For example, Mercury, Bilt, Affirm, Wise and many others received the message only at the end of June.
The publication also drew attention to the fact that despite the absence of direct financial losses for users, the information released by hackers threatens the security of many of them. One of the consultants, in a conversation with journalists, called the data an ideal "hunting list" for crime.
Some customers of Evolve Bank and its partners may be blackmailed due to the "sensitivity" of the information disclosed, FBW suggested.
Recall that in February, UK law enforcement officers partially seized the LockBit infrastructure and arrested 200 cryptocurrency wallets associated with the group.