A multibillion supplier to key automotive companies like Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Ford confirmed Monday that it was the target of a cyberattack over the weekend – confirmation that came after the Pandora ransomware group began leaking data that attackers claimed was stolen in the incident.

DENSO was listed on the victim list by ROOK in December 2021 and Pandora ransomware gang in March 2022.

“It’s no longer enough for businesses to solely focus on their ability to prevent or recover from a ransomware attack as attackers now routinely steal mass quantities of data as part of their operations.”

The data theft involved in double-extortion attacks can be even more dangerous than simply a traditional encryption-based ransomware attack due to the unpredictability of attackers once they get their hands on sensitive and proprietary information, he noted.

Since Pandora is such a new threat, it’s not yet known how cybercriminals breach corporate networks to infect systems with the ransomware.

One security researcher with the Twitter handle pancak3 believes Pandora is a re-branding of Rook ransomware, which in turn borrows code from Babuk ransomware.