Swiss world options supplier Ascom has confirmed a cyberattack on its IT infrastructure as a hacker group often called Hellcat targets Jira servers worldwide utilizing compromised credentials.
The corporate introduced in a press launch that hackers on Sunday breached its technical ticketing system and is at the moment investigating the incident.
Ascom is a telecommunications firm with subsidiaries in 18 international locations specializing in wi-fi on-site communications.
HellCat hacking group claimed the assault and informed BleepingComputer that they stole about 44GB of information which will affect the entire firm’s divisions.
Ascom says that the hackers compromised its technical ticketing system, the incident had no affect on the corporate’s enterprise operations, and that prospects and companions don’t must take any preventive motion.
“Investigations in opposition to such prison offenses had been initiated instantly and are ongoing. Ascom is working intently with the related authorities” – Ascom
Rey, a member of the HellCat hacking group, informed BleepingComputer that they stole from Ascom supply code for a number of merchandise, particulars about numerous tasks, invoices, confidential paperwork, and points from the ticketing system.
The Swiss firm didn’t present technical particulars in regards to the breach however focusing on the Jira ticketing system has turn out to be a typical assault technique for the HellCat hackers.
HellCat on a Jira hacking spree
Jira is a venture administration and issue-tracking platform generally utilized by software program builders and IT groups to trace and handle tasks. The platform typically comprises delicate information, similar to supply code, authentication keys, IT plans, buyer data, and inner discussions associated to those tasks.
Earlier incidents claimed by HellCat and confirmed by the focused firms rely Schneider Electrical, Telefónica, and Orange Group, and in all three cases the hackers breached their manner in by Jira servers.
Just lately, the identical hackers additionally took duty for an assault on the British multinational automobile maker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and stole and leaked about 700 inner paperwork.
Because the risk actor describes it, the leak contains “improvement logs, monitoring information, supply codes” and an worker’s information that uncovered “delicate data similar to username, e mail, show identify, timezone, and extra.”

Alon Gal, co-founder and CTO at risk intelligence firm Hudson Rock, says the JLR breach follows a sample particular to HellCat hackers.
“On the coronary heart of this newest incident lies a way that has turn out to be HELLCAT’s signature: exploiting Jira credentials harvested from compromised staff that had been contaminated by Infostealers” – Alon Gal
The researcher stated that the JLR incident was potential through the use of the credentials of an LG Electronics worker with third-party credentials to JLR’s Jira server.
Gal highlights that the compromised credentials weren’t contemporary and had been uncovered for a number of years however remained legitimate all this time, permitting hackers to take benefit.
HellCat’s exercise didn’t cease at these breaches because the risk actor introduced as we speak that they compromised the Jira system of Affinitiv, a advertising firm that gives information analytics a platform for OEMs and dealerships within the automotive trade.
The risk actor confirmed to BleepingComputer that they breached Affinitiv by a Jira system and disclosed publicly that they stole a database with just a little over 470,000 “distinctive emails” and greater than 780,000 data.
When contacted by BleepingComputer in regards to the alleged assault, Affinitiv stated that that they had begun an investigation.
To show the breach, hackers revealed two screenshots with names, e mail addresses, postal addresses, and dealership names.
Alon Gal is warning that Jira “has turn out to be a main goal for attackers because of its centrality in enterprise workflows and the wealth of information it homes” and any such entry can be utilized to “transfer laterally, escalate privileges, and extract delicate data.”
As credentials collected by infostealers are simple to seek out and on condition that a few of them stay unchanged for years as firms fail to incorporate them in an everyday rotation course of, such assaults will seemingly turn out to be extra frequent.
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