Italian asset manager Azimut faced a cyberattack that occurred on Monday, but fortunately, it did not result in any harm to its customers’ sensitive data. The company received a ransom request from the BlackCat ransomware group, the same group responsible for a significant data breach at state-owned Italian energy services firm GSE in the past. Despite the threat, Azimut refused to comply with the ransom demand, maintaining the security of its clients’ personal information and financial data.
DarkFeed, an Israeli hacking monitoring start-up, corroborated that the attack was indeed carried out by BlackCat, which emerged in late 2021 and has a reputation for launching sophisticated attacks on numerous companies in the U.S. and Europe. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, a Californian cybersecurity firm, further confirmed BlackCat’s involvement and noted that the group ranks as one of the most active multi-extortion ransomware groups, trailing only behind LockBit.
The hackers claimed to have stolen over 500GB of confidential data from Azimut and other targeted organizations. Despite this data breach, Azimut promptly detected the unauthorized access during their routine IT system monitoring. The company took swift action, informing relevant authorities and implementing internal safety procedures that successfully limited the impact of the criminal activity. As a result, no personal client information or financial records were compromised during the attack.
