By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – The Houston Rockets are investigating a cyber attack that attempted to install ransomware on the basketball team’s internal systems, and the organization is working closely with the FBI, team officials said.
“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, adding that cybersecurity experts were also helping.
“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 were aware of reports that the actors behind the attack claimed to have acquired internal business information from the team.
“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.
However, it added that it would be difficult to determine the scope of the incident until the investigation is completed.
The Rockets said they would notify anyone affected if they find personal information was involved in the incident.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that a hacking group, which goes by the name Babuk, claimed to have stolen 500 gigabytes of the Rockets’ data, including contracts, non-disclosure agreements and financial data.
Babuk was discovered early this year and has already compromised at least “five big enterprises,” including one victim who paid as much as $85,000 after negotiations, Bloomberg reported, citing security researchers at McAfee Inc.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
