Lockbit ransomware gang claims to have hacked Ministry of Justice of France

A few hours ago Lockbit ransomware operators announced to have stolen data from Ministry of Justice of France.

The Ministry of Justice of France is a body of the French government, which is responsible for: supervision of the judiciary, its maintenance and administration; participation as Vice President of the Judicial Council; supervision of the prosecutor’s office; prison systems.

A few hours ago Lockbit ransomware operators have announced to have stolen data from Ministry of Justice of France and threatened to leak it. The countdown on the Tor leak site of the gang reveals that the gang gave 14 days to the French government to pay the ransom. The deadline for the payment has been fixed on 10 Feb, 2022 11:20:00.

I have contacted the French Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst Anis Haboubi for a comment.

“I think we are in phase 3 leaks for failed negotiations. States will not pay by following the guidelines provided by Europol (nomoreransom.org).” states the expert. “The general advice is not to pay the ransom. By sending your money to cybercriminals you’ll only confirm that ransomware works, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get the decryption key you need in return.” recommends the Europol.

At this time the ransomware gang has yet to report the volume of data stolen from the Ministry of Justice of France or to publish any sample of stolen documents.

The French government has yet to publish any official comment about the alleged attack. (presse-justice@justice.gouv.fr).

Local journalists confirmed the attack citing source internal to the Ministry.

This morning the LockBit ransomware gang has announced a number of European companies, including France, Germany, Italy, and the UK, on the victim list.

If the security breach will be confirmed it could have a significant impact on French authorities.

Stay tuned ….

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Lockbit ransomware)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.