A year after a ransomware attack crippled the operations of Italian carmaker Ferrari, the company is reportedly facing another cyberattack. Details of the alleged attack emerged just four days after the racing division of the company partnered with cybersecurity firm Bitdefender.
According to reports, the RaaS service, RansomEXX, obtained about 7GB of internal documents from Ferrari. The documents included repair modules and data sheets. It’s not clear if the ransom demand was made.
In response to the data breach, Ferrari said it is investigating the matter and will take the necessary steps. The company noted that it has no evidence that its systems were compromised. It also noted that its operations were not affected by the alleged cyberattack.
The ransomware variant known as RansomExx first appeared in 2018 as Defray777. It gained a reputation in 2020 after it was used in various high-profile attacks, including those against government agencies and major companies. After the string “ransom.exx” was found in its binary, the group started a leak site for stolen data in 2020.
RansomEXX is still active and has been used in various high-profile attacks, including those against government agencies and major companies. Like other groups, it also published data stolen from its victims. In March 2022, for instance, the group published about 12GB of data, which included the personal information of the Scottish Mental Health charity’s volunteers.
Embarrassment for Ferrari
A data breach would be embarrassing for Ferrari, as last week, its managing director and team principal, who was promoting the company’s culture of security, claimed that the company was very secure. The partnership with cybersecurity firm Bitdefender was announced just a couple of days after the racing division of the company partnered with the company.
“We are pleased to embark on this new partnership with Bitdefender, with whom we share values such as the highest level of technological efficiency, striving for excellence in performance and a culture of security,” said Mattia Binotto, Team Principal and Managing Director, Scuderia Ferrari had said about the partnership. “It’s a pleasure to be able to count on a dependable Team Partner such as Bitdefender, an innovative and accomplished company, already highly regarded for its professionalism and reliability.”
This is the second time this year that the carmaker has been targeted by cybercriminals. In May, it signed a deal with a blockchain company based in Switzerland called Velas Network to create non-fungible digital tokens (NFTs) for its fans. Soon after that, the company’s website was hijacked and used to host a scam regarding NFTs before it was taken down.
