New York-based law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas has been robbed of 756 GB of data concerning celebrities including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Naomi Campbell, Robert De Niro, Sofia Vergara and Spike Lee among many others, the media reported Tuesday.
The array of information breached by hackers includes phone numbers, email addresses, contracts and non-disclosure agreements of Hollywood celebrities.
The law firm has not yet issued an official statement on the data breach incident. Its official website, however, remains offline, displaying only the name and logo of the firm without any other information. The hackers have not been identified.
Citing cybersecurity platform Sophos, the media has reported that the personal data of celebrities could be later used for extortion purposes.
Due to an increase in home working and online activities, the number of cyber attacks has risen dramatically in recent weeks.
US-based tech firm Pitney Bowes was recently subjected to a similar attack from a gang of cybercriminals, called “Maze”. In 2019, Maze also hacked American cable services called Southwire and demanded nearly $6 million dollars, threatening to expose the stolen data.
India has also been a focus for international hackers. Earlier this year, federal Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad revealed that over 300,000 cyber breaches including phishing, network scanning and virus attacks had been tracked to India.
Between 2018 and 2019, nearly 10 official Indian government websites, including those of the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs, were hacked, showing Mandarin characters, possibly indicating the involvement of Chinese hackers in the attack. There have also been attempts to hack the servers of the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.