In summary
- A French multinational corporation was targeted by a ransomware group that demanded to be paid in baguettes.
- The ransomware group, Hellcat, demanded $125,000 in French bread or they would leak 40GB of private data from Schneider Electric.
- Schneider Electric confirmed that it is investigating a cybersecurity incident, but its products and services have not been affected.
A French multinational corporation has been targeted by a ransomware group that couldn’t help but play on national stereotypes, demanding to be paid in baguettes.
The group said it wants $125,000 worth of French bread, or else it will leak 40GB of private data stolen from Schneider Electric. A media report claims that the company is actually demanding Cryptocurrency.
The ransomware group, which calls itself Hellcat, is represented by a Twitter user (also known as X) known as Grep, who communicated the demands. Grep claims the group infiltrated Schneider Electric to target “sensitive customer and operational information,” which it will expose if the ransom is not paid.
The situation is still ongoing. Schneider Electric did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While demands based on baguettes are what is on public display, Cyberscoop reports that the group is willing to accept the Monero cryptocurrency in lieu of bread. Monero is a privacy-focused coin designed to make it very difficult to trace on-chain transactions. It is a popular choice for cybercriminals, although it also has legitimate uses.
The demand for baguettes is a marketing tactic designed to help this newcomer stand out in the ransomware market, Picus Security security researcher Huseyin Can Yuceel told Cyberscoop, potentially positioning it to sell its services more effectively. in the future.
Schneider Electric confirmed that it “is investigating a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to one of our internal project tracking platforms, which is hosted within a sandboxed environment.” However, the company said its “products and services remain unaffected.”
This is Schneider Electric’s third breach in less than two years. Cactus ransomware infected the company’s Sustainability Business division in February. In June 2023, the firm was attacked by the CL0P ransomware group as part of the MOVEit attacks, which affected thousands of organizations and millions of individuals.
In this recent instance, the ransomware group claims to be in possession of over 400,000 rows of user data.
The group noted that Schneider has annual revenues exceeding $40 billion, although it made no direct reference to why they specifically targeted that business. According to the company’s own figures, its revenue stood at €36 billion (US$38 billion) at the end of last year.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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