Australian home builder Champion Homes has confirmed it was recently the victim of a cyber attack that exposed a limited amount of employee and customer data.
The company was listed by the DragonForce ransomware operation on 21 April, with a 44-gigabyte dataset published to the dark web soon after.
The information includes tender documents, quotes, and payroll data.
“Champion Homes recently experienced a cyber event. As soon as we became aware, we immediately engaged leading cyber experts to provide advice,” a Champion Homes spokesperson told Cyber Daily.
“This event has been contained and had a limited impact on our operations. We are continuing to provide services to our clients as usual.”
The spokesperson said, however, that during the company’s investigation, it determined that a “subset of data was likely copied from our systems”.
“This impacts some of our employees and customers. We will be communicating with impacted individuals in line with our obligations,” Champion Homes said.
“We have reported the event to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
“We take the protection of our data seriously and sincerely apologise for any concern this event may have caused.”
Who is DragonForce?
DragonForce operates a ransomware-as-a-service operation and is currently actively recruiting affiliates.
“We are ready to open our doors for researchers!” DragonForce recently said on its leak site.
“Creating your team has never been easier, just enter your TOX ID, new login with password and pay the $500 verification with XMR or BTC.”
The gang passes on up to 80 per cent of ransom payments and commonly advertises its services on Russian-language hacking forums.
First observed in December 2023, DragonForce and its affiliates have been responsible for at least 506 ransomware attacks, with 16 of those incidents targeting Australian organisations. The group’s most recent local victim was the popular gelato brand, Gelatissimo, which fell victim to the hackers in April.
Who is Champion Homes?
Headquartered in Hoxton Park, NSW, Champion Homes offers a range of new-home building services, including home designs, knockdown/rebuilds, house and land packages, and custom home designs.
The company services the Greater Sydney and Illawarra areas.
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David Hollingworth
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.