Never a company of this size had undergone such a computer attack in Germany. The pirate group has published on the Darknet an overview of stolen data.
by Cécile Boutelet (Berlin, Correspondence)
The nightmare has come true for Continental. Hanover’s great automotive supplier, victim of a computer attack in August, was stolen an enormous amount of extremely sensitive data. The author of the mischief, the group of pirates Lockbit, proposed for sale the stretched data, for $ 50 million. The economic daily Handelsblatt was able to consult the offer published by Lockbit on the Darknet and revealed, Tuesday, November 15, some details on the information stolen.
What emerges will not fail to panic the specialists in IT infrastructure. Continental was shown 40 data teraoctes, 55 million documents, which were stored on the group’s servers. The information itself has not been published, only a detailed table of the booty contents can be consulted. Who is ready to pay the ransom will thus find continental budget and investment plans, data on its strategy, documents from the human resources department, or even communication elements within the Management Board and the Supervisory Board, noted the Handelsblatt.
industrial secrets may be disseminated
Worse: Group customers are likely to be revealed. These include Volkswagen (VW), Porsche, Mercedes and BMW manufacturers. In the case of VW, you can find specifications relating to software, on -board electronic calculators, as well as details on the contracts and the specifications which bind it to the equipment supplier. This means that industrial or technological secrets may be disseminated.
Continental employees themselves are potentially threatened with serious consequences. According to the economic daily newspaper, the data stolen within the Human Resources Department would contain names and addresses of company employees, information on their remuneration and their contract, but also warnings addressed by the company, for example in case of defaulting management, physical assault or alcohol or drug use.
Continental had recognized for the first time in early November, that the August attack had led to a data theft. Contacted Tuesday by Le Monde, the equipment supplier did not wish to express themselves on the elements published by the Handelsblatt, but confirmed that “despite established security measures, the attackers have managed to steal part of the computer systems information concerned. “Never yet a company and this importance was affected by such a data theft in Germany. Lockbit, the author of the flight, is a ransom specialist who has multiplied attacks in recent months. Last week, the French company Thales acknowledged having been the subject of an attack by the same group of computer hackers, however concerning “a limited flight of information.”
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