New cyber thief gang targets transports; Hunt, Ryder and Echo hit

Actions by a relatively new group of cybercriminals that have targeted many transportation companies in turn have led to lawsuits filed by employees of three big names that have gotten caught up in the crook’s web. The cyber criminals operate under the name Whitearmor.

Ben Wilkens, the director of cybersecurity at the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, said in an email to FreightWaves that Whitearmor “came on the scene very recently, October of this year, and engage in very targeted attacks of vulnerable webservers.”

He also said of Whitearmor that he has seen “several transportation companies, ranging from very large national fleets and logistics companies down to several smaller regional fleets targeted by this group since October.” window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {var gptSlot = googletag.

defineSlot('/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1', [[300, 100], [320, 50], [728, 90], [468, 60]], 'div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'). defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps. banner1). addService(googletag. pubads()); googletag. pubads(). enableSingleRequest(); googletag. pubads(). collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag. enableServices(); setInterval(function() {if (!

document. hidden) {googletag. pubads(). refresh([gptSlot]); } }, 60000); }); googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); Three known logistics companies have been a target of a ransomware act carried out by Whitearmor since late October: J. B. Hunt (NASDAQ: JBHT), Ryder System (NYSE: R) and Echo Global Logistics.

All three companies are now the defendants in lawsuits from employees in the federal court system who are charging their respective companies with failing to protect personal information that the workers say was breached in the cybers attacks. The ransomware.

live website, which tracks ransomware attacks, has recorded the Whitearmor attacks on the three companies. Happened in late October The ransomware. live entry on J. B. Hunt says the attack occurred October 23. It also said the terms of the Whitearmor demand are as follows: “We hold 140,838 employee records with PII and national IDs, 1.

7M carrier contacts, 38. 2M invoices, 187K RBAC permission records, 3,196 ranked account-takeover targets, 973 M365 mailboxes, 374K organizations. Our demand: $5,000,000, in (bitcoin) or (monero, also a cryptocurrency). Instructions to follow by email.” There are at least six lawsuits filed in the Western District of Arkansas against Arkansas-based J.

B Hunt as a result of the Whitearmor breach. However, two of those suits already have been dismissed on the request of the plaintiffs. There is at least one suit filed against Echo Global in the Northern District of Illinois, the judicial district that includes Chicago, Echo’s home base.

And in the Southern District of Florida, which includes Ryder’s headquarters city of Miami, there are at least five suits filed against the company because of Whitearmor. window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {var gptSlot = googletag.

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document. hidden) {googletag. pubads(). refresh([gptSlot]); } }, 60000); }); googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1665767553440-0'); }); There is no one individual law firm that is listed as the attorney for the plaintiffs across the lawsuits. And while the allegations and criticism of J. B.

Hunt’s cybersecurity practices are similar in the suits, they are not identical. Suits came quickly But the speed at which the suits were filed after the attacks suggest an active ecosystem of attorneys ready to pounce when a cybersecurity breach is publicized.

(Several of the attorneys listed in the suits also come with the designation pro hac vice, which suggests they are placeholders until a local attorney admitted in that particular region can be found.)

The cases ask for the suits to be recognized as class actions, as they are filed for the individual plaintiffs “and on behalf of all others similarly situated.” The suits repeat the Whitearmor claim that it is holding 140,838 Personally Identifiable Information (PII) employee records of J. B. Hunt employees and seeks a $5 million ransom. window.

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