McDonald's
According to McDonald's, the breach was caught relatively quickly thanks to its investment in cybersecurity, being removed within a week of being discovered.
"These tools allowed us to quickly identify and contain recent unauthorised activity on our network. A thorough investigation was conducted, and we worked with experienced third parties to support this investigation," McDonald's said. "We were able to block access immediately after identification, but investigations showed that the number of files accessed was small, some of which contained personal data."
According to McDonald's, the personal data released in the hack includes personal information for delivery customers in the two affected countries and the personal information of a number of employees. Regulators were notified immediately, while any affected employees and customers will be contacted soon.
While no evidence of ransomware has been found by McDonald's yet--at least, any evidence that has been publicly disclosed--the concern remains, given the drastic increase in ransomware attacks against major corporations and government agencies. Recent examples include the Colonial Pipeline attack, which compromised the company's billing system, prompting a shutdown due to the risk of the virus spreading across the company's systems.
While the success of the Colonial Pipeline ransom and other ransomware attacks may galvanize hackers, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's success in retrieving the ransom paid to the hackers has proven the viability of law enforcement countering ransomware. While only one example, it is likely that other law enforcement agencies will develop similar methods in time, providing better resilience against future attacks.
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-hit-by-data-breach-in-south-korea-taiwan-11623412800
- https://ohionewstime.com/south-korean-and-taiwanese-mcdonalds-suffered-data-leak-ransom-not-yet-involved/179774/
- https://bmmagazine.co.uk/news/mcdonalds-are-the-latest-company-hit-by-data-breach/
- https://www.econotimes.com/Samsung-expands-presence-in-Latin-America-smartphone-market-in-Q1-report-1610661
- https://www.pws.io/crypto-markets-shaken-by-fbi-recovery-of-colonial-pipeline-ransom