IT firm Kaseya receives key to unlock files affected by the REvil ransomware attack

Kaseya, an IT firm based out of the United States, said that it got the key to unlock files that were locked after it was hit by a major ransomware attack earlier this month, according to media reports.

Even though Dana Liedholm, the spokesperson for the IT company, did not give clarity about any potential payments in exchange for the key but said that it was received from a “trusted third party”, according to reports from BBC.

Liedholm told tech blog Beeping Computers that Kaseya was helping the customers who were indirect victims of the attack by retrieving their files. 

Also Read: US will defend its people against cyberattacks: Joe Biden to Vladimir Putin

In a statement released after the attack, the company said that about 800 to 1,500 businesses were potentially impacted after the ransomware attack. These included nearly a dozen educational institutions in New Zealand and about 500 branches of a Swedish supermarket, according to reports from BBC.

REvil, the group that claims to be behind the attack, demanded a sum of $70 million from the IT firm in exchange for the key to the locked files. The ransom was demanded in the form of bitcoins, according to reports from BBC.

However, the hacking group suddenly went out of action soon after the attack, leaving the victims without any possible leads to solve the cyber-deadlock.

Ransomware is a type of cyberattack in which an individual or a group will breach a victim’s software and add malicious code to freeze their systems. After this, the party which breached the software demands compensation in return for giving back access to the operator of the software.   

Such attacks seek to freeze the operations of the victim by locking them out of their own data. 

United States-based firms, recently, have faced multiple such attacks. These include Colonial Pipeline hack, JBS attack and SolarWinds attack.