Details of the hacker attack on Media Markt and Saturn have emerged

Global cybercrime has long since gone beyond targeting government agencies and other public bodies. In the course of digitalization, hackers are also increasingly exploiting loopholes of large companies. Now it has become known that the company Mediamarktsaturn has fallen victim to a huge cyber attack. The giant electronics retailer is said to have been hit so hard that even day-to-day business in local stores was affected.

Ransomware attack

It certainly wasn’t a pretty Monday morning for Mediamarktsaturn’s IT security. During the night from Sunday to Monday, the company was attacked with ransomware. Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailer is naturally armed for such attacks. But the lifeline thrown out as part of such hacker attacks quite often has severe consequences. Since the ransomware targeted workstations and servers, the corresponding protection mechanism was triggered. This resulted in the entire IT system having to shut down. For a company of this size, this is the real super disaster.

Business across Europe affected by attack

The hacker attack did not target just one country or a single branch. According to the company, stores across Europe were victims of the attack. However, Germany and its neighboring country, the Netherlands, were primarily hit. Contrary to what one might expect, however, it was not the online business that was affected by the ransomware. Rather, it was the day-to-day business on site that suffered. For example, it was no longer possible to accept payment with credit cards in the stores. Meanwhile, the shutdown of the IT system had a negative impact on returns. After all, it was no longer possible to retrieve past orders.

Of course, Mediamarktsaturn is not in the mood to keep its feet still. According to its own statements, the company is already taking action against the cyber attack. Speaking to colleagues at Bleeping Computer, the electronics retail giant said that it is already working at full speed with the authorities at each of the affected locations to resolve the matter. In particular, the identification and subsequent “cleansing” of the affected areas of the IT system have the very highest priority. Otherwise, one would not even want to imagine the serious consequences that could threaten the company.

Fear of consequential damage

Of course, the company now wants to play it safe. This is expressed, for example, in the fact that employees are no longer permitted to use the local IT systems. A reboot is also to be avoided at all costs if these should ever shut down. Furthermore, instructions have been issued that all LAN cables are to be unplugged from the cash registers. Surely Mediamarktsaturn is not doing this by accident. The fear of serious consequential damage is simply far too great. In view of the use of so-called “hive ransomware”, this is more than justified.

These usually aim to collect encrypted personal data. Accordingly, a ransom demand had also been made by the attackers. This is said to amount to a whopping 240 million US dollars. What may seem like a gigantic sum at first glance is nothing atypical for ransomware attacks. Cyber criminals who rely on such programs regularly demand such high ransoms in order to have the best possible starting position for subsequent negotiations. As a rule, the ransom ultimately paid is then much lower.

Attackers’ success uncertain

Whether the attackers were successful with their attack is probably uncertain. But experience shows that criminals who use ransomware usually back up their words with actions. So if no ransom is paid, one would have to reckon with a release, which would probably also be very expensive for the company. The “Hive ransomware team” is not an unknown quantity anyway. After all, it has already shown several times in the past that it has no problem with the publication of sensitive data if no ransom is paid. So the electronics retailer will have to dig deep into its pockets willy-nilly. That is of course very bitter so shortly before the upcoming Christmas business.