Confidential data stolen | The Yellow Pages victims of a cyberattack

The Yellow Pages Canada directory would be the victim of a cyberattack claimed by the Black Basta ransomware gang. Copies of passports, RAMQ cards, account statements and driver’s license: The Press found on the dark web samples of confidential information stolen, in particular from Quebecers.


This alleged cyberattack follows a classic modus operandi, which is to say that the gang revealed online, on its blog located on the dark websamples of the stolen data to put pressure on the targeted company.

In this case, it’s the Yellow Pages, this directory that brings together the information of thousands of Canadian businesses and consumers.

The extent of the information leak is not known.

At the time of this publication, the Yellow Pages had not responded to an emailed request from The Press. In the morning of Saturday, a call to the Yellow Pages customer service number indicates that “communication could not be established”. The general company number hangs up automatically.

At the beginning of April, the Canada 411 website had been inaccessible for a few days, had been able to observe The Press. THE Montreal Journalin an article published on April 7, attributed the outages to a ransomware cyberattack, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Sensitive information stolen

On the dark web, Black Basta published samples of very sensitive information on several people, including Quebecers. It includes copies of Canadian passports, Quebec and British Columbia driver’s licenses, Régie de l’assurance- maladie du Québec (RAMQ) cards, and a tax return containing the number individual’s social insurance.


SCREENSHOT THE PRESS

Copies of confidential documents released by Black Basta.

Statements of accounts of several companies, and the sales contract of an Ontario company are also disclosed.

On Friday evening, the cyberattack monitoring group BetterCyber ​​alerted on Twitter to this attack claimed by Black Basta.

“#BlackBasta#ransomware claims to have #hacked Yellow Pages Canada,” the tweet read.

Although directly challenged on Twitter, Yellow Pages (the Yellow Pages) had not responded publicly on the social network in the morning of Saturday.

Black Basta is an active ransomware gang. On April 20, the London-based business services giant Capita confirmed that it had been the victim of a cyberattack by them, according to the Bleeping Computer site. About 4% of Capita’s server infrastructure was reportedly affected.

It was also Black Basta who, in November 2022, attacked the Empire group, which notably operates IGA supermarkets.

With information from Hugo Joncas, The Press

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  • 125,000
    Number of Canadian businesses that use Yellow Pages services

    75.6%
    Yellow Pages revenue that comes from digital

    Yellow Pages website


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