Crown Resorts investigating potential data breach after ransomware group's claims

Australian casino giant Crown Resorts revealed it has allegedly fallen victim to a data breach. The casino giant was recently contacted by a ransomware group that claims they illegally obtained a number of files. 

A Crown Resorts spokesman said in a statement on Monday that the validity of the claim is being investigated as a matter of priority. Hackers claimed they had breached file transfer service GoAnywhere. 

Suspicious activity at GoAnywhere was identified by US cybersecurity company Fortra nearly two months ago, and has impacted many organizations including mining giant Rio Tinto.

“We can confirm no customer data has been compromised and our business operations have not been impacted,” the spokesman said, as reported by News.com.au. “We are continuing to work with law enforcement and have notified our gaming regulators as part of the ongoing investigation and will provide relevant updates, as necessary.”

Crown's case comes as fintech company Latitude Financial Services revealed it had identified 14 million customer details had been stolen in a hack two weeks ago. They are the latest in a series of Australian businesses that have become the target of cybercriminals. 

In October, Australian private health insurance provider Medibank was hit by a “cyber incident” after it detected unusual activity on its network. Almost 10 million current and former customers’ details were leaked in the hack. The hackers demanded a $10 million ransom from the health insurer, and federal authorities became involved in the investigation. 

In September a hacker demanded Optus pay $1 million in cryptocurrency or they would leak millions of Australians customer data. Another 10 million people were caught up in this hack with about 2.1 million of those including a current and valid form of identification.