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An Australian harness racing digital provider has fallen victim to hackers as bank account details were published to the darknet.
The Sarcoma ransomware gang has listed RISE Racing as a victim on its darknet leak site, an attack that the Australian harness racing services provider has confirmed.
The leak post was dated 5 June, and the hackers are claiming to have stolen 1.6 gigabytes of data. Several documents were also published as evidence of the hack, alongside a .Zip archive of the entire dataset.
“We confirm that RISE Racing has recently been impacted by a cyber incident,” a RISE Racing spokesperson told Cyber Daily.
“Our immediate investigation has confirmed that certain data files from 2017 to 2022 were accessed during this breach. Unfortunately, some of these files included banking details. We are in the process of notifying all impacted participants in line with our obligations.
“Our response is significant and ongoing, and we are working with law enforcement agencies, and external cyber security and privacy experts, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).”
RISE said it had engaged third-party cyber security experts to contain and investigate the incident.
“Our participants and team privacy [are] of highest importance to us, and we are communicating with them on how we are managing the current situation and what they can do to be vigilant,” RISE said.
According to a post on the Racing Queensland website, the incident was detected on 12 May.
First observed in October 2024, Sarcoma runs a ransomware-as-a-service operation, selling its malware to all comers in return for a cut of any ransom payments. The gang is believed to be based somewhere in eastern Europe, and it employs double extortion techniques to pressure its victims, both encrypting data and then stealing it with the intention of publishing it online if a victim fails to pay.
Sarcoma has claimed 109 victims since it first emerged, and its most recent Australian victim was the TMA Group of Companies, which was listed by the gang on 14 April.
According to its website, “RISE Racing is the data and systems provider for the Australian harness racing industry”. The company provides a centralised data hub to the harness racing industry, administers the website www.harness.org.au, and offers other software-related services. It is based in Flemington, Victoria.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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