HOUSTON – The Houston Rockets are investigating an attempted cyberattack on some systems in their internal network, the team announced Wednesday.
“Our investigation is ongoing, but it appears that the unknown actors attempted to install ransomware on certain internal systems at the Rockets. However, our internal security tools prevented ransomware from being installed except for a few systems that have not impacted our operations,” the organization said in a statement.
The investigation was recently launched after the organization detected suspicious activity, the statement said.
“Ransomware is an incredibly common problem,” said Chris Bronk, associate professor at the University of Houston. “It sounds like they were not compromised in as severe a way as others have been so I think that they’ve largely skirted a major problem, hopefully.”
Ransomware is malicious software that locks up data on a computer, Bronk said. Typically whoever is behind the attack will ask for payment to give back the data, he said.
The team’s statement did not say who was responsible. The organization is working closely with the FBI to support their investigation, according to the Rockets.
“It is a good reminder for all the other businesses in town that if the Rockets can get hit, so can just about anyone else,” Bronk said.
The Rockets said they are aware of claims that whoever was behind what happened may have obtained some internal information. However, the team won’t know the scope of the incident until its investigation is complete.
“Should we determine throughout the investigation that personal information of any individuals may have been involved, we will notify those individuals directly,” the organization said.