The ransomware group Space Bears claims to have access to an Atos database. The French tech company is taking this claim seriously and has launched an investigation.
Space Bears first surfaced early this year and has since claimed dozens of victims. Western companies, in particular, seem to be targeted. In a successful attack, Space Bears blocks access to systems and then demands a ransom to release the system access. In addition, the group uses double extortion, threatening to make stolen data public if payment does not follow.
Atos stresses that, as yet, there are no indications that systems in any country have been affected. No suspicious activity has been detected on the systems of subsidiary Eviden at this time either. To date, the company has not received a ransom demand. “Nevertheless, Atos takes such allegations very seriously. Its cybersecurity team is actively investigating the situation and updates will be provided if there is any change to the information above,” Atos said in a statement.
Space Bears’ claim dates back to Saturday, Dec. 28. Atos published a brief update on the investigation into the claimed hack a day later, on Sunday, Dec. 29. So far, there is no definitive conclusion that there was no successful attack, nor has concrete evidence of a successful hack been found.