Pierluigi Paganini
May 23, 2023
Rheinmetall is a German automotive and arms manufacturer that is listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange. The company this week announced it was victim of a ransomware attack conducted by the Black Basta ransomware group.
The incident took place in Mid-April and impacted the business unit that serves industrial customers, particularly in the automotive sector. The defense division of the company was not impacted by the ransomware attack as reported after the discovery of the incident by Rheinmetall’s spokesperson Oliver Hoffmann.
The automotive and arms manufacturer launched an investigation into the incident with the help of cybersecurity authorities.
The company filed a criminal complaint with the Cologne public prosecutor’s office.
The company is still working to completely recover from the security breach.
In March, the pro-Russian hacker group Killnet called to cyber arms on his Telegram channel against the company IT infrastructure in Germany and Australia after Rheinmetall announced a new tank factory in Ukraine as the Russian invasion of the Eastern European nation continues.
The company is a supplier of weaponry used on the Leopard tank which were sent to Ukraine by several European countries.
On September 2019, a series of cyber attacks hit defense contractors Rheinmetall AG and Defence Construction Canada (DCC) damaging their information technology systems.
Black Basta has been active since April 2022, like other ransomware operations, it implements a double-extortion attack model.
In November 2022, Sentinel Labs researchers reported having found evidence that links the Black Basta ransomware gang to the financially motivated hacking group FIN7.
In November 2022, experts at the Cybereason Global SOC (GSOC) team observed a surge in Qakbot infections as part of an ongoing aggressive Qakbot malware campaign that leads to Black Basta ransomware infections in the US.
In two weeks, the experts observed attacks against more than 10 different US-based customers
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