Leaked data prompted Northern Minerals firm to disclose breach

Northern Minerals announced earlier today that the company had suffered a cybersecurity attack, which resulted in some of its stolen data being released on the dark web.

The affected entity is an Australian company that focuses on the search and development of heavy rare earth elements (HRE), such as dysprosium and terbium, used in producing modern devices such as electronics, batteries, and aeroplanes.

Moreover, the Australian government considers the company to be of crucial strategic importance. This idea is supported by the recent request of Chinese shareholders to sell their shares in the rare earth miner.

 

The attackers allegedly stole the data from Northern Minerals earlier this year.

 

Northern Minerals announced earlier this week that the attackers took data from its servers in late March 2024 and then exposed it on the dark web. However, the company did not reveal the attackers’ names in the announcement.

A press statement also disclosed that Northern Minerals Limited advised relevant parties that it had been the subject of a data breach and was already aware that its data was now on a data leak website.

Some of the confirmed exfiltrated data included corporate, operational, and financial information, details relating to current and former personnel, and shareholder details. The company claims it has contacted the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and affected individuals will receive notices.

The affected company said this event had no impact on its mining or business operations.

However, the BianLian ransomware organisation claimed credit for the attack, adding Northern Minerals to its dark web extortion page. This hacking organisation, which has begun to transition toward data-theft-based extortion over ransomware, revealed the purported stolen information.

The group claimed that the data leak included operational details, documents from Australian and foreign projects, research and development data, financial information, personal information of employees, data for shareholders and potential investors, and email archives of Northern Minerals’ chairman, executive director, and CFO.

The entire disclosure of the stolen dataset reveals that the corporation declined to pay the ransom demand.