Sapiens International Corporation has reportedly parted with $250,000, which it paid to hackers in the form of Bitcoin in ransom dealing.
Sources familiar with the matter revealed that Sapiens decided to go ahead with the ransom payment of $250,000 without involving regulators from Israel or from the U.S. This was after hackers threatened to shut down the Israeli company’s systems through a ransomware attack. The Tel-Aviv company reportedly faced the ransomware attack between March and April this year.
Did Sapiens have a reason for not reporting the situation to regulatory authorities?
Sapiens has not revealed why it decided to handle the ransomware situation the way it did. However, the answer might be found in the company’s operations. The Israeli company makes software for finance and insurance companies. It also has customers from across the globe. The two segments which it serves with its software offerings are quite sensitive. This might explain its decision to handle things under wraps without risking the shutdown of its services, which would have undoubtedly affected clients.
Like many other companies, Sapiens allowed most of its workers to work from home earlier this year when governments across the world issued a directive for people to stay at home. This was aimed at combating the spread of the coronavirus. However, the transition to remote work created a loophole that the hackers took advantage of so that they could push the company to a corner.
Statistics indicate that the $250,000 payment that Sapiens paid to appease the hackers was higher than most ransomware payments. According to a cybersecurity company called Coveware, hackers requested $40,000 on average as a ransom payment. This means that Sapiens was among the companies that have paid the highest amount of money in ransomware-related cases.
The hackers also requested payment in the form of Bitcoin to avoid being traced easily. In such cases, hackers take advantage by routing the cryptocurrency through exchanges to make it harder to track. Ransomware attacks have become increasingly common, and anyone or any organization might be at risk. Thus the need to deploy significant security countermeasures to prevent the occurrence of such attacks in the future.
