Pune: The cybercrooks on June 22 hacked into the online system of a private biotechnology firm to take hold of important research and data files stored on computers at its office in Khadki. They then demanded a ransom of Rs 28.4 lakh to restore access to their data.A company officer (43), a resident of Shivajinagar, lodged a complaint with the Khadki police on Friday.According to the police, the hackers gained control of the company’s files and data before demanding the ransom in cryptocurrency in exchange for restoring access to the compromised files.Senior inspector Swapnali Shinde of Pune cyber police told TOI, “The company had tendered a complaint application to the Pune cyber police station, and after verifying the ransomware attack, we officially registered a complaint of extortion against the cybercrooks with the Khadki police station.”According to the Khadki police, the company deals in research, especially related to the human body, collects samples, and investigates health-related cases. The hackers managed to gain control of the files generated from June 1 onwards. The data before June 1 remained safe and the company has a backup of all the files and data.The fraudsters wrote an email to the company and demanded the random. They also provided an address of a cryptocurrency exchange and asked the company officials to transfer money using to that account.Shinde said, “The firm did not transfer money and approached us.”
