Cognizant Announces Hackers Hijacked Employees' Personal Details - Report

Leading IT firm, Cognizant has confirmed that some of its employee’s personal data which includes names of employees and account numbers of their company credit card were compromised during a Maze ransomware attack in April. 

According to Moneycontrol’s report the company confirmed it in an official E-mail to employees. 

Cognizant was attacked by Maze ransomware on April 18. The company announced that it caused disruptions to the company’s clients. Recently they also announced that the impact of the incident will be somewhere between the range of $50-70 million in revenue and margins for the quarter ending June 30, 2020.

Ransomware attacks usually encrypt and exfiltrate information to hackers. “A limited amount of personal data (of associates) was compromised before the attack was contained on May 1,” Cognizant’s email to employees read.

“Vast majority of the information consisted of names and account numbers (and no other personal information) from some American Express cards,” the mail added.

Reportedly, the email also stated that some of its employees who held corporate credit card will have access to complimentary credit card monitoring, dark web monitoring and restoration services. It will also be available to everyone else regardless of whether their card data was compromised in the attack or not. 

“The small number of associates who have had other kinds of personal information exposed will be notified directly by June 24, 2020, and will also receive complimentary identify theft protection,” the company added.

According to CRN, “the company has filed two letters with California state regulators where it has disclosed the theft of personal information related to company credit cards.”

The report also added that the company has sent a separate email in which it mentioned that personal information compromised included social security number, tax identification number, financial account information, driver’s license information, and passport information.