Worth Its Weight In Gold
Private information from Goldcorp Inc. has been leaked online after it was revealed that the company had fallen victim to a data breach by anonymous hackers.
The data breach encompasses data of more than 14.8 gigabytes, according to reports. Payroll information, private budget documents, bank account specifics, employee passport scans and so much more else is included in the data leak that was posted online.
The Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. chief executive, David Garofalo, said the issue was in police hands now. In an interview with one of the journalists, he said, “What I can tell you is our business is operating normally. And as a public company, we are obliged to disclose all material information and I’m confident we have.”
Hacking of major corporations around the world has caused much concern, and the hacking of one of Canada’s largest mining companies will do nothing to alleviate that concern. Many companies just want to get rid of the problem so they pay the ransom fee that is demanded by hackers.
Exponential Risk
Vanessa Coiteux, a lawyer at the Montreal office of Stikeman Elliot LLP, said the Goldcorp hacking was a testament that almost every company was at risk. She also went on to say that more and more hacking was going on with each passing year.
Garofalo did not comment on the nature of the hack and any specifics of the hack. He did, however, acknowledge that hackers were continually threatening and stealing data from many companies. The hackers would then try to extort money from the hacked companies so they would keep the information confidential and not post it online. Garofalo said generally the hackings were money driven, nothing else.
Reporters noted that the hackers had said they were planning more and more of the data dumps of Goldcorp’s private information over the coming weeks. The hackers wrote that the next dump was going to comprise of at least 14 months of company-wide emails, some of the emails contained some good old fashioned corporate racism, sexism, and greed.
The hack of the company is just one in a long list of hacked companies based in the US and Canada. One business corporation, Target Corporation has paid in excess of $250 million already in costs which are related to a 2013 data breach in its operations. $90 million of these costs were however covered by insurance.
One of the most famous hacks of the decade happened to Sony Corp. back in 2014. The hack is believed to have been a response to the movie, The Interview, a movie about the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The film was a mockery of his leadership.
Another new trend that surfaced from hackers is attacking hospitals and other medical establishments so as to get hold of their information which they can exchange for ransoms.
Goldcorp joins a long list of hacked mining companies in Canada which includes the Detour Gold Corp., which was hacked last year by a Russian-based group.
As always, do your best to protect your information with a good VPN, or if you’re in Canada, one that is best suited for you.
