This Web Hosting Company Pays $1 Million to Ransomware Attackers

SEOUL - South Korea's the web hosting company called  Nayana has agreed to pay a ransom of $ 1 million for hackers to re-activate hacked computers. The amount paid by the company is record, as many ransom payments are not made public at all. The pirates initially asked for $ 4.4 million to be paid by the company in the currency of the "BitCoin", the chief executive of Nyana disclosed.

Experts in the field of electronic security have warned not to be subject to companies and pay any ransom or negotiations with pirates.

 Anguilla Sass, director of the Internet Security Science Institute, said she was amazed at the amount of ransom paid and the company's announcement.

"It is a record ransom to my knowledge, especially as some companies are subject to payment and do not announce it."

"The company may have had to disclose it under the organizational structure in South Korea or it was out of a sense of public duty," she said.

"From the point of view of the pirates, they may have preferred to keep the company in check, a large amount that could motivate many companies to pay the highest attention to their insurance," she said.

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The virus, known as "Erebus," targeted computers that support the Windows operating system and made modifications to target Linux systems.

It seems that the company has negotiated with the pirates to reduce the amount from 4.4 million dollars to less than 500 thousand dollars, but the pirates doubled the value negotiated last minute to reach one million dollars.

It is believed that they were able to encrypt the data of 153 servers supporting Linux operating system and 3400 websites.

An update on Saturday said engineers had begun work on restoring the data but added that the process would take time.

The chief executive of the company, Naiana, apologized for the "shock and damage" caused by the accident.

He said in a previous statement that the attack targeted his bank account.

"I'm bankrupt now, I'll lose everything I've worked and acquired for 20 years tomorrow by twelve o'clock."

SAS said the ransom hackers had grown bolder in recent years.

"Two years ago they were (Hackers) targeting individuals or small companies in the belief that these individuals and companies are weaker in terms of security, but they found that they could target larger targets and increase the amount of money required.