A global cyberattack that struck more than 1,300 locations was discovered by a team of Israeli researchers on Thursday, the parent company, Guardicore, announced. The two researchers are Liad Mordekovitz and Ofir Harpaz.
The cyberattack, which targeted over 2,000 companies and organizations, attacked the servers of companies and organizations specializing in the fields of health, tourism, communications and education. They service hospitals, hotels, educational institutions and government agencies, mostly located in the United States, Vietnam and India.The scope of the area of the attack initially made it difficult for the researchers to locate the hackers.
The attack hit Microsoft's SMB protocol, where the hackers found a way to access user data and possibly sell the information on the dark web. The estimated value of these exploits is listed at hundreds of dollars.
Guardicore, which also develops software for malware protection, used its analysts to to help identify cyberattacks and provide recommendations for protection against them.The company employs over 270 people, with offices in Israel, the United States, Canada, South America, India, Western Europe and Ukraine.