$87B Italian Asset Manager Azimut Hit With Ransomware Attack

Azimut Group, an Italian asset administration firm managing over $87.2 billion in belongings, launched a public assertion indicating that it could “not comply by any means” with a ransomware demand from the notorious hacking group BlackCat.

On June 21, the ransomware group BlackCat—additionally known as ALPHV—threatened Azimut by way of the darkish internet, claiming to have “stolen over 500 GB of potential knowledge,” in accordance with a file shared on energetic ransoms by Ransomware.dwell.

Ransomware is a sort of cyber assault that often encrypts or steals a sufferer’s information and calls for a ransom fee to be able to decrypt them. As a consequence of its anonymity, hackers have favored crypto funds.

In accordance with a latest report by blockchain safety agency, Chainalysis, funds have been down 40% in 2022 in comparison with the earlier 12 months as many victims refused to pay the attackers.

Decrypt has contacted Azimut for remark.

Azimut refuses ransomware fee

The ransom letter by BlackCat allegedly included delicate pictures of a buyer’s knowledge, and asserted accessing different clients’ full monetary data, together with firm studies, particulars on shares, and vintage purchases.

They threatened to make the “particulars public” if their calls for weren’t met, reminding that “jokes” with BlackCat “finish badly.”

The ransom demand letter learn that “the one option to keep away from that is to make a cope with us.”

Nonetheless, Azimut has already rebuffed their calls for.

The Italian funding group acknowledged the presence of “unauthorized entry” to its techniques however assured shoppers that clients’ knowledge was secure.

The agency additionally claimed that the attackers didn’t entry the non-public or monetary data of shoppers, or permit the execution of unauthorized transactions.

This isn’t Azimut’s first brush with crypto both.

In 2021, it was one of many first corporations to launch a safety token linked to a portfolio of loans to firms.

Extra just lately, the funding group additionally tokenized considered one of Luxembourg Funding Fund’s personal debt methods in partnership with BNP Paribas and Allfunds Blockchain, rising its efforts within the decentralized finance house by way of the tokenization of belongings.