Darren Pauli reports:
Desperate companies are buying off data thieves and extortionists to recover stolen data, according to experts. They claim it is “common” for some businesses operating in Australia to pay ransoms to hackers and disgruntled employees to re-secure sensitive information or prevent illicit corporate activities from becoming public.
Law firm MMLC Group managing director, Matthew Murphy, said instances of companies buying back stolen data “happens quite a lot, but doesn’t hit the headlines” in Australia.
[…]
[Surete Group managing partner and former director of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, Alastair] MacGibbon said the most vulnerable organisations are small-to-medium enterprises which typically have an international footprint but may lack the knowledge or security budget of large enterprises.
MacGibbon, also former security head for eBay Australia, welcomed the Federal Government’s move to consider tough new data breach disclosure laws — to be reviewed later this year — but warned it will not stamp out such fraud or prevent theft of corporate information.
Read more on Computerworld (AU)