Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex hit by ransomware

On Sunday, the Mexican state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) was infected with the DoppelPaymer ransomware.

On Sunday, a piece of the DoppelPaymer ransomware infected systems of the Mexican state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) taking down part of its network.

According to the company, less than 5% of the computers in its network were infected with ransomware.

Source BleepingComputer

Threat actors demanded a $4.9 million (565 BTC) ransom in order to decrypt their files, they are also threatening to leak sensitive data stolen by the company.

“Pemex’s internal network, like all major national and international government and financial companies and institutions, frequently receives threats and cyber attacks that have not prospered today.” reads a security notice published by the company. “Yesterday, Sunday, November 10, the State productive company received attempts at cyber attacks that were timely neutralized, affecting the operation of less than 5% of personal computer equipment. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Pemex reiterates that the production, supply and inventories of fuel are guaranteed.”

The Petróleos Mexicanos claims that it has quickly neutralized the attack, it also highlighted that operation and production systems were not impacted.

Pemex confirmed that its infrastructure, like all major national and international government and financial organizations, is under unceasing targeted attacks, for this reason, it is continuing to improve its security measures.

The DoppelPaymer ransomware is a forked version of the BitPaymer ransomware likely developed by some members of the cybercrime gang tracked as TA505.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – ransomware, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex))

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.