NEWSDAY · Stonewalling & silence over data breaches - BitDepth1378 Narration

MARK LYNDERSAY

THERE was a moment, while working on this piece, that I hesitated.

I'd invested some effort – but not that much, surprisingly – into exploring the status of the data dump of sensitive corporate information exfiltrated by Hive Ransomware from Massy Distribution.

Now, THE download was running.

A compressed Zip file clocking in at 216GB of company information, legal documents, personnel records and other personally identifiable information (PII) that the ransomware group had first downloaded from Massy and then encrypted on its servers.

A half-day into the download, with 1GB of data pulled down and at least eight more days to go, I terminated the download and the temporary file evaporated.

There was too much about this that seemed untidy, gray and frankly, criminal to continue.

It didn't feel right, but then, neither did Massy's continuously ignoring repeated requests to interview relevant members of their IT team and get the story from their side.

An insistent stonewalling of media investigation into data breaches has become the norm in Trinidad and Tobago.

I know of four major ransomware breaches in this country; only three of which (ANSA and the PoS City Hall are the others) have been reported. In each case, executives declined to discuss the matter in any depth, preferring legally safe PR denials of any customer or business impact.

Last week, Massy issued a press release that described reporting on the incident as "speculative and inaccurate." It was not.

If anything, it was excessively cautious and responsible, as you might expect when discussing the business of a major advertiser.

BITCOIN RANSOM

On April 28, Massy Stores reported disruptions to their capacity to serve customers and eventually explained that the cause was a data breach. The company insisted that customer information was not at risk.

Red Packet Security noted on July 12 that Hive had posted data related to the breach online (https://bit.ly/3VBxIwP).

In the evolving ransomware landscape, hackers prefer a double-barrelled assault. Having gai