Attacker to sell unauthorized access to a huge number of companies, mostly based in the US

An attacker has emerged claiming to sell unauthorized access to a huge number of companies, mostly based in the United States. This alarming claim was made public in an advertisement detailing the wide range of access on offer.

According to the attacker, they hacked a contracting company that cooperates with more than 400 companies. The combined revenues of these companies exceed $1 trillion, highlighting the significant potential economic impact of this disruption. Unauthorized access covers many important tools and platforms, including Jira, Bamboo, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, SSH, SFTP, DA, Zabbix, AWS S3, AWS EC2, SVN, and Terraform.

The attacker stipulated that payments would only be accepted in Monero (XMR), a cryptocurrency known for its privacy features. Transactions must be processed through an escrow service managed by a user named Aegis. In addition, the seller clarified that it will only interact with buyers who have rank or reputation in the community, discouraging inexperienced or new users from initiating contact.

To ensure trust, the attacker claims to have shared screenshots of his access on various forums and Keybase, claiming they can be verified by those who have seen them. This purported evidence is intended to convince potential buyers of the authenticity and extent of the violation.

The announcement also provided examples of the financial scale of some of the affected companies: revenues were $67.6 billion, $197 billion, $42.3 billion and $381.6 billion. These figures highlight the scale and potential impact of unauthorized access sales.

Selling such extensive access poses significant risks to the security and operational integrity of affected companies. It also highlights the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures to protect against such breaches and mitigate potential damage.