An international law enforcement action dismantled a Romanian ransomware gang known as 'Diskstation,' which encrypted the systems of several companies in the Lombardy region, paralyzing their businesses.
The law enforcement operation codenamed 'Operation Elicius' was coordinated by Europol and also involved police forces in France and Romania.
Diskstation is a ransomware operation that targets Synology Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices, which are commonly used by companies for centralized file storage and sharing, data backup and recovery, and general content hosting.
The ransomware operation has been targeting NAS devices worldwide since 2021 under various names, including "DiskStation Security", "Quick Security", "LegendaryDisk Security", "7even Security", and "Umbrella Security".
The attacks targeted internet-exposed NAS devices, whose files were encrypted, demanding ransom payments ranging from $10,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
DiskStation ransom note
Source: BleepingComputer
An announcement by the Postal and Cybersecurity Police Service explains that companies targeted by Diskstation experienced severe systems outages and business disruption.
"These companies had experienced encryption of data on their IT systems, resulting in the complete 'paralysis' of their production processes," reads the announcement.
"To regain access to their data and resume operations, the victims were required to pay a substantial ransom in cryptocurrency to the cybercriminals."
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