Ferrari CEO, Benedetto Vigna, officially said in a press statement on Monday, March 20, that they are facing a ransomware attack from a yet unidentified attacker. In the post of Digital Trends, the issue specifically involves Ferrari S.p.A, Ferrari's subsidiary company located in Maranello, Italy which is believed to have been contacted by a threat actor demanding a ransom to release Ferrari's client details.
Upon the receipt of the alarming message, Ferrari then immediately proceeded to investigate as its client's data privacy can be potentially compromised.
Ferrari Said that They Will Not Pay the Ransom
Ferrari said they will not pay the ransom. It is also stated in the policy that Ferrari is not to be held accountable to pay the ransom for it could be subject to funding criminal activities enabling perpetrators to continue doing their attacks and illegal activities.
Ferrari has also coordinated with the responsible authorities in collaboration with a reputable, global third-party cyber security agency to be able to fully investigate the issue to the full extent of the law and boost their security. Likewise, the management has notified their clients well regarding the said issue so they could also take preventive measures for possible data leaks. This action is also deemed by the management as the best course to take considering the nature of the said incident.
Until now, it is not disclosed yet by Ferrari as to how many of their clients are involved in the ransomware attack. As mentioned in the post of Digital Trends, the personal information asked by the hacker includes the name of the client, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, bank account numbers, customer's payment details as well as the details of owned or ordered Ferrari cars of the customer.
So far as the conduct of the investigation, it is revealed by Cyber Security Connect that none of the client's personal information asked by the hacker is leaked nor has been stolen by the attacker. The incident additionally has no apparent impact on the production system of Ferrari.
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The Risk of a Ransomware Attack
A ransomware attack is a type of malicious software also called malware threatening to publish or deny a user access to his or her computer system data. Usually, it is done by encrypting data. The cyber hacker then will demand a ransom or payment from its victim for the decryption key, a key to enabling to regain access to the encrypted file.
A ransomware attack can happen in different ways. Typically, it takes advantage of infecting human devices, either a computer or smartphone, including systems, software vulnerabilities, and networks. Without prior knowledge, the victim can easily fall for a ransomware attack by carelessly clicking a link, visiting a web page, or installing files and applications with malicious codes.
For the record, this ransomware attack in Ferrari is allegedly said to be the second time. The company was already subjected to the same issue way back in October 2022 saying that RansomEXX group claimed it had stolen and leaked 7 GB of data from Ferrari. But based on the report of The Record Media, Ferrari strongly denied the data breach and ransomware attack despite the claims of the said group.
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