Maze Ransowmware attack to affect Cognizant's Revenue By CIOReviewIndia Team

Maze Ransowmware attack to affect Cognizant's Revenue

CIOReviewIndia Team | Tuesday, 21 April 2020, 13:15 IST

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Maze Ransowmware attack to affect Cognizant’s Revenue

One of the world’s leading professional IT services provider - Cognizant’srevenue may be affected by the Maze ransomware attack that occurred last week, stated by the company in a disclosure it made to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Although the company is in the early stages of assessing this incident, the attack has caused and an interruption in parts of the business and may result in a loss of revenue and incremental costs that may adversely impact its financial results.

Cognizant also stated that the ongoing assessment may determine the extent of impact on the financial results.

The Maze ransomware attack had not only deranged internal Cognizant systems but it also affected clients, which has made the company to rope in law enforcement agencies and outside experts to contain the fallout.

According toBeenu Arora, CEO and Co-Founder of US-based cyber security company Cyble, this incident could result in some fresh regulatory, legal and opportunity costs for the company. Liabilities from the attack such as the possible leakage of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) could also result in GDPR penalties and restrictions, “Most large customers/organizations have stringent Data Privacy and Protection clauses, which can create significant liabilities if the service provider fails to protect their interest in good faith and due care,” he said.

“The time spent to rectify damage caused by the security incident would also result in some extent of opportunity cost,” he added. “As leaders focus on damage control and deploy resources from “revenue-generating” streams to the internal incident, affected organizations lose significant value. It generally has an immediate effect on the coming quarter’s revenue outcome depending on the severity of an incident.”

Legal experts on this security incident said that Cognizant is expecting lawsuits and claims from customers due to this incident. “Cognizant could be expecting customer confidential data to be leaked online leading to claims and lawsuits from them. The company also mentioned that there has been service disruption to clients, this again could also lead to legal issues and damages,” said Salman Waris, Partner at Tech Legis Advocates and Solicitors.

Cognizant also said that its internal security teams, supplemented by leading cyber defence firms, are actively taking steps to contain this incident. The organization has also engaged with the appropriate law enforcement authorities. The company also added that it is in ongoing communication with its clients and has provided them with indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and other technical information of a defensive nature.

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