In the reports of July 24 Monday, Azimut, the Italian asset manager, said on Monday that they had suffered a cyber attack that did not harm its customer’s data and had received a ransom request which they declined.
“The attack did not affect data or information that might allow access to the personal position of clients and financial advisors or the execution of unauthorized transactions,” the company stated.
Israel’s hacking monitoring startup, Darkfeed, and California-based cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks stated that the attack was by the BlackCat group.
Documents from Ransomware.live also confirms that BlackCat stole more than 500GB of data from Azimut.
BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, came out in 2021, known for attacking over 40 wealthy companies across the U.S. and Europe.
Most of the hacking groups rely on cryptocurrencies for payment due to the relative difficulty of tracking blockchain transactions.
Monero is an anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrency (AEC) or “privacy coin,” while Bitcoin is a more public and traceable coin.
Cybersecurity firm SafeBreach said in 2022 that the group demands ransoms in Monero (XMR) and Bitcoin (BTC) between $400,000 and $3 million. It also states that victims must pay an additional 15% fee if they pay in Bitcoin.
To keep illegal Bitcoin transactions private, BlackCat would need to launder funds through a coin mixer and pay relevant fees.
Some reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cybersecurity division also suggest that they certainly move Bitcoin through coin mixers.
Azimut has invested in blockchain ventures in the mining firm Alps Blockchain and even acquires stakes in Diaman Partners.
The cybercrime group has targeted various non-crypto organizations. Recently, Estelle Lauder, the famous cosmetic company, got attacked by the hacker group.
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