Google says hackers are sending extortion emails to corporate executives

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google said hackers are sending extortion emails to an unspecified number of executives from various companies, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle business applications. In a statement, Google said a group claiming affiliation with the ransomware gang cl0p was sending emails to "executives at numerous organizations claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle E-Business Suite." Google cautioned that it "does not currently have sufficient evidence to definitively assess the veracity of these claims." Cynthia Kaiser, the head of cybersecurity firm Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center, said her company had seen extortion demands "in the seven or eight figure range," with the highest coming in at "$50 million." Kaiser noted some dispute over the connection to cl0p but said there are early indications that the perpetrators are potentially connected to the group. "There's so much overlap amongst all these groups, and there are copycats across the ecosystem," Kaiser said, adding that additional information in the coming days will help paint a clearer picture. Messages seeking comment from cl0p and Oracle were not returned. Google described the email campaign as "high-volume" but declined to share further details. (Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and AJ Vicens in Detroit, Michigan.Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Diane Craft)

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