Hackers contacted CEO's son, wife to exert pressure during extortion attempt

The firm didn’t pay the hackers even though the pressure campaign got personal.

By William Turton | May 22, 2023 at 06:58 AM

Stealing documents and extorting company executives has become an increasingly common tactic among criminal hacker groups, sometimes in coordination with deploying ransomware. (Credit: Koldunov/Shutterstock.com)

(Bloomberg) — Hackers stole contracts from cybersecurity firm Dragos Inc. as part of an extortion attempt that included contacting the chief executive officer’s wife and 5-year-old son, according to a company blog post, documents provided by the suspected hackers and interviews.

The firm didn’t pay the hackers, who gained access to internal documents after breaching the personal email account of a newly hired Dragos sales employee, CEO Robert M. Lee told Bloomberg News in an interview.

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