Housing association pays ransom to cybercriminals after attack | Tech

Woonkracht10 paid cyber criminals a ransom after an attack that took place at the end of April. The Zwijndrecht housing corporation has made agreements with the attackers to ensure that they remove stolen data.

Woonkracht10 says it has made a careful assessment, and that it has finally been decided to pay. The amount of ransom money is not known.

“We are doing everything possible to protect the data of our tenants, employees and other parties involved under these difficult circumstances,” writes Woonkracht10 on its website. The housing association has more than 10,000 rental homes in Zwijndrecht, Papendrecht and Alblasserdam.

According to Woonkracht10, the attack took place on the weekend of April 22 and 23. In addition, criminals had access to data from Woonkracht10. It is now estimated that data of tenants, employees and other parties involved were stolen.

Cybercriminals from the group Play claimed responsibility for the attack. That hacker collective was also behind attacks on the computer system of the city of Antwerp. More than 500 gigabytes of data was stolen.