Hackers from Vietnam said they carried out cyberattack for fun Photograph:( Reuters )
The couple, who claimed to be from Vietnam, said that they deleted large amounts of data after they were prevented from carrying out a ransomware attack
A couple of hackers claimed to have carried out a cyber-attack against British hotel chain Holiday Inn owner Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) “for fun”, causing massive booking disruptions.
The firm operates 6,000 hotels around the world, including the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Regent brands.
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Following the attack, the hackers, calling themselves TeaPea, contacted BBC on the Telegram messaging app, providing screenshots as evidence that they carried out the hack.
The couple, who claimed to be from Vietnam, told BBC that they deleted large amounts of data after they were prevented from carrying out a ransomware attack.
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“Our attack was originally planned to be ransomware but the company’s IT team kept isolating servers before we had a chance to deploy it, so we thought to have some funny [sic]. We did a wiper attack instead,” one of the hackers was quoted as saying
Through a wiper attack, data, documents and files are destroyed irreversibly, without having the possibility of recovering them.
They said that they were able to access the hotel chain’s database due to a weak password that is found to be prevalent—Qwerty1234.
The firm’s servers were hacked Monday last week after customers reported widespread problems with booking and check-in.
The problem persisted for over 24 hours, following which IHG posted its response on Twitter saying that the company was “undergoing system maintenance”.
Later on Tuesday afternoon, the company confirmed that it fell prey to a cyber-attack.
“Booking channels and other applications have been significantly disrupted since yesterday,” it said in an official notice lodged with the London Stock Exchange.
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