Famous Smoke Shop Back Online After Ransomware Attack

After nearly a week offline, Famous Smoke Shop is back online after suffering a ransomware attack.

On July 7, Famous said it discovered a “detected suspicious activity within its computer environment” which led to a temporary closure of its website and Easton, Pa.-based retail store. The company says the hackers scrambled the company’s data and told Famous it would unscramble its data after a ransom was paid, which the company said it would not do.

Famous Smoke Shop was of more than 1,500 websites attacked over the July 4 holiday by the Russian hacker group REvil. According to the New York Times, REvil wanted $45,000 in cryptocurrency to release the data of a single computer system.

While the company says that it doesn’t keep financial data about credit cards, this does mean that some personal information of its customers was potentially compromised.

Arthur Zaretsky, Famous’ ceo and owner, reiterated that in a statement to the company’s customers:

No customer financial information was impacted, as we do not keep that information. It is possible that your account information, such as name, mailing address, email address, date of birth, and order history was compromised, but we cannot confirm that. Our investigation is ongoing.

By yesterday, multiple websites operated by REvil had disappeared from the internet, raising questions about what happened to the group. Last week, President Joe Biden said that the U.S. would respond to Russian-based cyberattacks like those from REvil, it’s unclear what those actions might be.

Famous Smoke Shop is one of the largest cigar retailers in the world, known primarily for its extensive online and catalog sales. It is the largest independent retailer—meaning it is not owned by a company that also produces its own cigars—in the U.S.