Cyber correspondent, BBC World Service
Bloomberg by way of Getty PhotosAn abusive e mail despatched by the Marks & Spencer hackers to the retailer’s boss gloating in regards to the hack and demanding fee has been seen by the BBC.
The message to M&S CEO Stuart Machin – which was in damaged English – was despatched on the 23 April from the hacker group known as DragonForce utilizing the e-mail account of an worker.
The e-mail confirms for the primary time that M&S has been hacked by the ransomware group – one thing that M&S has thus far refused to acknowledge.
“We have now marched the methods from China all the way in which to the UK and have mercilessly raped your organization and encrypted all of the servers,” the hackers wrote.
“The dragon needs to talk to you so please head over to [our darknet website].”
The extortion e mail was proven to the BBC by a cyber-security professional.
The blackmail message, which incorporates the n-word, was despatched to the M&S CEO and 7 different executives.
In addition to bragging about putting in ransomware throughout the M&S IT system to render it ineffective, the hackers say they’ve stolen the personal information of thousands and thousands of shoppers.
Almost three weeks later customers were informed by the corporate that their information could have been stolen.
The e-mail was despatched apparently utilizing the account of an worker from the Indian IT big Tata Consultancy Companies (TCS) – which has offered IT providers to M&S for over a decade.
The Indian IT employee primarily based in London has an M&S e mail deal with however is a paid TCS worker.
It seems as if he himself was hacked within the assault.
TCS has beforehand stated it is investigating whether or not it was the gateway for the cyber-attack.
The corporate has advised the BBC that the e-mail was not despatched from its system and that it has nothing to do with the breach at M&S.
M&S has declined to remark fully.
‘We are able to each assist one another’
A darknet hyperlink shared within the extortion e mail connects to a portal for DragonForce victims to start negotiating the ransom payment. That is additional indication that the e-mail is genuine.
Sharing the hyperlink – the hackers wrote: “let’s get the occasion began. Message us, we are going to make this quick and straightforward for us.”
The criminals additionally seem to have particulars in regards to the firm’s cyber-insurance coverage too saying “we all know we will each assist one another handsomely : ))”.
The M&S CEO has refused to say if the corporate has paid a ransom to the hackers.
DragonForce ended the e-mail with a picture of a dragon respiration fireplace.
The e-mail confirms for the primary time the hyperlink between M&S’s hack and the ongoing Co-op cyber-attack, which DragonForce have additionally claimed duty for.
The 2 hacks – which started in late April – have wrought havoc on the 2 retailers. Some Co-op cabinets had been left naked for weeks, whereas M&S expects its operations to be disrupted till July.
Though we now know that DragonForce is behind each, it’s nonetheless not clear who the precise hackers are.
DragonForce provides cyber-criminal associates varied providers on their darknet website in alternate for a 20% lower of any ransoms collected.
Anybody can enroll and use their malicious software program to scramble a sufferer’s information or use their darknet web site for his or her public extortion.
Nothing has appeared on the felony’s darknet leak website about both Co-op or M&S however the hackers advised the BBC final week that they had been having IT issued of their very own and could be posting data “very quickly.”
Some researchers say DragonForce are primarily based in Malaysia, whereas others say Russia. Their e mail to M&S implies that they’re from China.
Hypothesis has been mounting {that a} free collective of younger western hackers often called Scattered Spider is likely to be the associates behind the hacks and in addition one on Harrods.
Scattered Spider will not be actually a gaggle within the regular sense of the phrase. It is extra of a group which organises throughout websites like Discord, Telegram and boards – therefore the outline “scattered” which was given to them by cyber-security researchers at CrowdStrike.
Some Scattered Spider hackers are recognized to be youngsters within the US and UK.
The UK’s Nationwide Crime Company stated in a BBC documentary in regards to the retail hacks, that they’re focusing investigations on the group.
The BBC spoke to the Co-op hackers who declined to reply whether or not or not they had been Scattered Spider. “We cannot reply that query” is all they stated.
Two of them stated they wished to be often called “Raymond Reddington” and “Dembe Zuma” after characters from US crime thriller The Blacklist which entails a wished felony serving to police take down different criminals on a blacklist.
In a message to me, they boasted: “We’re placing UK retailers on the Blacklist.”
There have been a collection of smaller cyber-attacks on UK retailers since however none as impactful of disruptive as these on Co-op, M&S and Harrods.
Within the early levels of the M&S hack, unknown sources advised cyber information website Bleeping Pc that proof is pointing to Scattered Spider.
The UK’s national cyber-crime unit has confirmed to the BBC that the group is considered one of their key suspects.
As for the hackers I spoke to on Telegram, they declined to reply whether or not or not they had been Scattered Spider. “We cannot reply that query” is all they stated.
