The US basketball team’s internal systems suffered a cyberattack that at least partially shut them down. The company’s operations, though, have not been impacted.
The Houston Rockets has reported a cyberattack in which cybercriminals attempted to install ransomware on the basketball team’s IT systems.
The team’s officials said they are working closely with the FBI to get to the bottom of the incident.
“The Rockets organization recently detected suspicious activity on certain systems in its internal network. We immediately launched an investigation”, Houston Rockets said in an emailed statement. The company assured its audience that it involved cybersecurity experts to help with the investigation.
All but a few internal systems withstood the attack, according to team officials:
“Our internal security tools prevented ransomware from being installed except for a few systems that have not impacted our operations,” the statement added.
The Rockets also said on Wednesday they got reports that the attack operators claimed to have acquired internal business information from the team.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that a hacking group Babuk claimed to have stolen 500 GB of the Houston Rockets’ data. The data included contracts, financial data, and non-disclosure agreements.
Babuk first made the news early this year and has already hit five large enterprises. One victim paid as much as $85,000 in ransom money, according to security researchers at McAfee.
“While this investigation is ongoing, the incident has had no impact to our operations or our ability to take care of our fans, employees, and players”, the basketball team said.
The company said they will be able to determine the full scope of the incident when the investigation is completed. The Rockets assured they would notify any affected customer if they find personal information leaked in the incident.
