Extortion gang ransoms Shoprite, largest supermarket chain in Africa

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/extortion-gang-ransoms-shoprite-largest-supermarket-chain-in-africa/

Shoprite Holdings, Africa's largest supermarket chain that operates almost three thousand stores across twelve countries in the continent, has been hit by a ransomware attack.

Shoprite is Africa's largest supermarket chain, with a revenue of $5.8 billion and149,000 employees. The retailer has 2,943 stores, serving millions of customers in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, DRC, Angola, and other countries.

Last Friday, the company disclosed that they suffered a security incident, warning customers in Eswatini, Namibia, and Zambia, that their personal information might have been compromised due to a cyberattack.

"Additional security measures to protect against further data loss were implemented by amending authentication processes and fraud prevention and detection strategies to protect customer data," mentions the firm's statement.

"Access to affected areas of the network has also been locked down. The data compromise included names and ID numbers, but no financial information or bank account numbers."

Yesterday, the ransomware gang known as RansomHouse took responsibility for the attack, posting an evidence sample of 600GB of data it claims it stole from the retailer during the attack.

 

[Wontkins]

Not too surprising given the overall level of crime in the African continent. This article talks about cybercrime in South Africa. They state, "South Africa is ranked 6th globally when it comes to cyber-crime density according to Surfshark. Surfshark goes on to say that South Africa has had the highest year-over-year (YoY) density increase in cyber-crime compared to any country in the world (277%)". Beautiful country but crime in rampant.

Property market targeted as cyber-crime increases

By Antonie Goosen, principal and founder of Meridian Realty

www.biztechafrica.com