The LockBit ransomware crew is claiming to have stolen 78GB of data from Italy’s tax agency and is threatening to leak it if a ransom isn’t paid by July 31.
If information was stolen, the tax agency would only be the latest in an expanding list of victims of LockBit.
According to cybersecurity vendor Digital Shadows, LockBit was one of the most active ransomware group in the second quarter, accounting for 32.77 percent of all incidents where victim organizations were posted to ransomware leak sites.
The notice on LockBit’s dark web site says the Italian tax agency was attacked by LockBit 3.0.
Digital Shadows said the release of LockBit 3.0 could juice ransomware activity in Q3. When LockBit released an improved version in July 2021, it dominated the ransomware threat landscape.
The threat group and its attack on the tax agency are examples of the evolution of ransomware away from encrypting files and demand a ransom in return for a key to decrypt the data.
