DataBreaches.Net

Menu
  • About
  • Breach Notification Laws
  • Privacy Policy
  • Transparency Report
Menu

Hackers claim to have attacked major Bangladeshi conglomerate

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Dissent

Hackers claim to have successfully attacked a multinational  conglomerate that is described as having the largest market capitalization on Bangladesh’s stock market.

BEXIMCO logo
Beximco’s mission is “Taking Bangladesh to the World.”

Background on BEXIMCO

The Bangladesh Export Import Company Limited (“BEXIMCO”) was founded in the 1970s and has approximately 70,000 employees worldwide.  It has operations and investments across a wide range of industries including textiles, pharmaceuticals, PPE, ceramics, real estate development, construction, trading, marine food, information and communication technologies, media, Direct to Home (DTH) services, financial services, and energy.

“The Group” (as it is called) consists of four publicly traded and seventeen privately held companies. The publicly traded companies are Bangladesh Export Import Company Limited, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited, Shinepukur Ceramics Limited and Beximco Synthetics Limited.

BEXIMCO’s newest vertical is its PPE Division. In May, 2020, BEXIMCO began shipping millions of PPE gowns, masks, and coveralls to the U.S., and its pharmaceutical division became the world’s first company to start supplying the generic version of the antiviral medication Remdevisir for COVID-19 treatment after the drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use.

The total revenue of the BEXIMO group stands in excess of $1 billion USD each year. And that made it an attractive target for hackers.

ALTDOS Claims

This week, ALTDOS hackers contacted DataBreaches.net to report that they had hacked BEXIMCO in December, but BEXIMCO had not responded to their demands.

[Note: DataBreaches.net refers to ALTDOS in the plural because a spokesperson claims that ALTDOS has multiple members, but DataBreaches.net really has no proof as to whether ALTDOS is one person, a few, or many. Previous coverage of ALTDOS’s claimed hacks are linked from here.]

“In total, ALTDOS has stolen hundreds of gigabytes of files, source coding and databases from 34 of Beximco websites, including its telecom subsidiary – BOL-ONLINE.COM,”  a spokesperson wrote to DataBreaches.net.

As they have done with other hacks they have claimed, ALTDOS provided a small sample of data and screencaps as proof. Nothing in the data sample appeared super-sensitive, although one of the files contained some employee attendance information for a time period from September 24, 2018 to May 17, 2019. That file had 56,088 rows each with an employee ID number, their department, their name, and their email address. More than 23,450 of the email addresses were from the bol-online.com domain. More than 19,000 of the email addresses were from the beximco.net domain. Approximately 4800 were from gvtele.com. The remainder were from assorted non-corporate domains such as gmail.com, yahoo.com, and hotmail.com.

DataBreaches.net sent email inquiries to a few of the email addresses in the file listed as being involved in security or network. A few bounced back. Others were seemingly delivered, but DataBreaches.net received no reply. Nor did the conglomerate’s corporate media department reply to an inquiry sent 24 hours ago.

ALTDOS provided screencaps showing the names of folders in various directories, and the amount of data being downloaded (or in this case, 13.6 GB compressed size for 42 compressed web site folders,  one of which is likely just a test folder).

BEXIMCO Website Folder Names

Screencap shows that dbases contain more than 13 GB of data

 

Another file called “payment_info” contained what appeared to be more than 65,000 rows with payment records, but there was nothing in there that would be problematic in terms of bank account numbers, credit account numbers, or parties’ names, etc.

Of note, DataBreaches.net did not see any evidence that ALTDOS had obtained any corporate IP, trade secrets, or confidential communications from any of the conglomerate’s divisions. When asked about other proof or types of files, an ALTDOS spokesperson said they were currently going through all the sql databases they had exfiltrated to evaluate the information they had obtained and would be providing more proof and details in the future.

This story will be updated if more information is obtained or a response is received from the conglomerate. While Bangladeshi law provides for criminal consequences to hackers, if caught and convicted,  it is not clear that the conglomerate would have any breach notification obligations under Bangladeshi law if the hackers acquired personal information of employees and/or customers. There appear to be obligations about reasonable security, but there does not seem to be any obligation to notify employees or customers in the event of a data breach involving personal information. A review of Bangladeshi data protection laws can be found here. If this site has mis-stated the country’s breach notification laws, please let us know.

Related posts:

  • Forbes Breach Email Statistics
  • ASEAN companies still targeted by ALTDOS threat actors
  • From the frying pan into the fire: Thai business angers hackers
  • TeamGhostShell posts “master list” of 548 leaks (so far)
Category: Breach IncidentsBusiness SectorHackNon-U.S.

Post navigation

← Now-defunct X-Rated Social Media App Exposes Users in Massive Data Breach
Russian policeman detained over data leak about alleged Navalny poisoners: RBC →

Now more than ever

"Stand with Ukraine:" above raised hands. The illustration is in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine's flag.

Search

Browse by Categories

Recent Posts

  • Qantas customers involved in mammoth data breach
  • CMS Sending Letters to 103,000 Medicare beneficiaries whose info was involved in a Medicare.gov breach.
  • Esse Health provides update about April cyberattack and notifies 263,601 people
  • Terrible tales of opsec oversights: How cybercrooks get themselves caught
  • International Criminal Court hit with cyber attack during NATO summit
  • Pembroke Regional Hospital reported canceling appointments due to service delays from “an incident”
  • Iran-linked hackers threaten to release emails allegedly stolen from Trump associates
  • National Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in 324 Defendants Charged in Connection with Over $14.6 Billion in Alleged Fraud
  • Swiss Health Foundation Radix Hit by Cyberattack Affecting Federal Data
  • Russian hackers get 7 and 5 years in prison for large-scale cyber attacks with ransomware, over 60 million euros in bitcoins seized

No, You Can’t Buy a Post or an Interview

This site does not accept sponsored posts or link-back arrangements. Inquiries about either are ignored.

And despite what some trolls may try to claim: DataBreaches has never accepted even one dime to interview or report on anyone. Nor will DataBreaches ever pay anyone for data or to interview them.

Want to Get Our RSS Feed?

Grab it here:

https://databreaches.net/feed/

RSS Recent Posts on PogoWasRight.org

  • The Trump administration is building a national citizenship data system
  • Supreme Court Decision on Age Verification Tramples Free Speech and Undermines Privacy
  • New Jersey Issues Draft Privacy Regulations: The New
  • Hacker helped kill FBI sources, witnesses in El Chapo case, according to watchdog report
  • Germany Wants Apple, Google to Remove DeepSeek From Their App Stores
  • Supreme Court upholds Texas law requiring age verification on porn sites
  • Justices nix Medicaid ‘right’ to choose doctor, defunding Planned Parenthood in South Carolina

Have a News Tip?

Email: Tips[at]DataBreaches.net

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

Contact Me

Email: info[at]databreaches.net

Mastodon: Infosec.Exchange/@PogoWasRight

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

DMCA Concern: dmca[at]databreaches.net
© 2009 – 2025 DataBreaches.net and DataBreaches LLC. All rights reserved.