Toshiba hit with Darkside

European units of Japanese tech giant Toshiba are investigating a security incident in which scammers may have used a similar hacking tool to the malware used against IT systems at Colonial Pipeline.

Toshiba Tec Group did not name DarkSide, which is both a type of ransomware and an Eastern European criminal syndicate that develops and sells access to the code to other criminals.

With backups in place and prompt countermeasures, encrypted data was recovered and connections restored.

The extent of impact has been limited to some regions in Europe and we have not yet confirmed a fact that customer related information was leaked externally.

Toshiba Tec would be only the latest victim of the DarkSide criminal syndicate. Since emerging in last August, the malicious code has reportedly been used to steal millions of dollars in intrusion of companies in various sectors.

The FBI has blamed the DarkSide ransomware for the temporary shutdown of Colonial Pipeline, which says it provides some 45% of fuel to the East Coast, and President Joe Biden has vowed to retaliate against the criminals.