Zambian Central Bank refused to pay ransom to hackers but sent pornographic picture !

What happened

According to BleepingComputer, after being attacked by the ransomware HIVE, the National Bank of Zambia refused to pay the ransom and returned a link of a male genitalia picture, which probably meant to tell hackers to suck my 🍆

The National Bank of Zambia announced that on May 9 2022, the bank experienced an outage of some of its information technology systems due to a cyber attack.

However, the bank representative not only refused to pay the ransom, but also passed “14m3-sk1llz” to the hackers. (Note: 14m3-sk1llz = lame skills), and even sent a link of a male genitalia picture.

According to Bloomberg, IT director said, “All of our core systems are still up and running … not much sensitive data has actually been shipped out.”

And here is the announcement of the bank.

Conclusion

In summary, the National Bank of Zambia boldly stood against a ransomware attack, refusing to pay the ransom and responding defiantly to the hackers. This incident showcases the bank’s resilience and determination in the face of cyber threats.

Reference

• National bank hit by ransomware trolls hackers with dick pics (bleepingcomputer.com)
• Ransomware Attackers Get Short Shrift From Zambian Central Bank – Bloomberg
• Bank refuses to pay ransom to hackers, sends dick pics instead • Graham Cluley
• The announcement of BOZ – Disruption_IT_Services.pdf (boz.zm)

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