The California-based technology startup incubator IdeaLab is notifying individuals who were impacted by a data breach last October. It was determined that threat actors had gained unauthorized access to its systems three days earlier. IdeaLab is one of the longest-running and most influential venture capital firms in the entire United States. Since 1996, it has launched over 150 companies, including GoTo.com, eToys, and the two-factor authenticator Authy.
Although the organization does not describe the type of attack, the Hunters International ransomware group has claimed it. This ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the breach and leaked the stolen data on the dark web. On October 23, 2024, likely after a failed extortion attempt, the group disclosed the data stolen from IdeaLab. The massive data leak contains 137,000 files, totaling 262.8 gigabytes in size. It is very likely that multiple threat actors had downloaded all of the files at an earlier time.
On October 7, 2024, IdeaLab detected suspicious activity on its network and launched a full investigation.
The company contracted third-party services to help with the investigation, which finished on June 26th this year. The results of this lengthy investigation confirmed that data had been stolen from the company’s internal systems. The breach has impacted current and former employees, and also current and former support service contractors. The dependents of these employees and contractors have also had their personal information exposed in this incident.
The company said that the hackers accessed names in combination with various other types of personal data.
To protect against risks from this incident, notification recipients are offered free-of-charge coverage for twenty-four months. This includes credit protection, identity theft monitoring, and dark web monitoring services provided through the company IDX. Earlier today, the threat actor announced that they’re shutting down the Hunters International ransomware operation. However, this may be part of a rebrand attempt, as researchers have linked the group to a new operation. This new, extortion-only operation is reportedly called World Leaks, according to researchers at the firm Group-IB.
Reference:
