Reuters on Saturday reported: “Hacking group BlackCat was behind a recent attack on Italy’s state-owned energy services firm GSE, stole a massive amount of data and threatened to publish if their demands were not met, according to security researchers and documents seen by Reuters.
BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, emerged in mid-November last year and is known for launching sophisticated attacks on scores of companies across the U.S. and Europe.
GSE declined to comment.It had said earlier that the hacking attack took place between Sunday and Monday.
The average recovery cost from a ransomware attack is estimated at $1.85 million, said Walter Ruffinoni, CEO of NTT Data Italia.
“In Italy, the phenomenon have risen 350% in the last year, where 1.9% of Italian companies each week suffered an attack of this type,” Ruffinoni said.
Last month Italian oil company Eni’s (ENI.MI) computer networks were also hacked, though the company said the consequences appear to be minor so far.On a dark web site, BlackCat posted 12 victims in June, 26 victims in July and so far two victims in August, Olson said.
“The FBI has always advocated NOT to pay a ransom, as “it does not guarantee an organization will regain access to its data. In some cases, victims who paid a ransom were never provided with decryption keys.” (Source: FBI website)
SOURCE: RUETERS | SEPTEMBER 3 2022
