By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) – Hacking gang Anubis claimed credit on Tuesday for an attack on Coca-Cola-owned dairy company fairlife, threatening to publish stolen data unless it received an unspecified ransom.
The group made the claim on its dark web site, saying it had stolen 1 terabyte of data from fairlife.
Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the hackers did not immediately return a message.
Chicago-based fairlife makes dairy products including protein shakes and filtered milk drinks. Coca-Cola said last week that production at fairlife’s U.S. facilities was temporarily suspended after a hack.
Anubis is one of many cybercriminal gangs that paralyze their victims’ networks until a ransom is paid, a practice that can occasionally have dramatic knock-on effects if critical networks are hit. Hackers typically threaten to publish stolen data in a bid to pressure their victims.
Anubis’ operations have a particularly disruptive edge to them, according to an analysis published last year by cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which cited the group’s use of file wiping software.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Additional reporting by Koyena Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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