Posted in: Comics | Tagged: diamond, ransomware

Diamond Comic Distributors Targeted By Ransomware Attack

Published Mon, 08 Nov 2021 06:57:09 -0600

Diamond Comic Distributors and associated websites such as Previewsworld, Diamond UK, Hake's Auctions, Geppi Family Enterprises and more, went down on Friday and stayed down over almost the whole weekend. Yesterday, Diamond's retailer website went back up in time for Marvel's Final Order Cut-Off, but has not been updated. It turns out that they had been the subject of a ransomware attack. In an email sent out to retailers last night, they stated;

As many of you may know, we are currently experiencing systems issues affecting our order processes and communications. Our IT department and a team of third-party experts are working around the clock to address these issues and restore full operations.

We've determined that the systems issues we're experiencing are the result of a ransomware attack. These attacks have, unfortunately, become increasingly pervasive in recent months, impacting organizations around the world. We want to assure you that customer data and financial information is not stored on our network and as such we have no reason to believe it has been impacted by this attack.

In addition to the investigation underway by our team of third-party forensic experts, we've also notified law enforcement. While some of our systems remain down, rest assured we are continuing to ship product and fill orders to the greatest extent we can. Our retailer services portal is online and available for FOC this evening and tomorrow.

Thank you for your patience as we work to restore full operations as quickly as possible. We're grateful for your support and will share updates with you as we have them.

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Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid. Criminals can encrypt the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demand a ransom payment to decrypt them. In a cryptoviral extortion attack, recovering the files without the decryption key is an intractable problem – and digital currencies can be used for ransoms, making tracing and prosecuting the perpetrators difficult. What that means for Diamond going forward, we are yet to learn.

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