The French industrial giant Schneider Electric is facing a new cyberattack, the third in two years. The hacker group “Hellcat” threatens to disclose 40 GB of sensitive data, initially demanding an unusual ransom of 125,000 dollars in baguettes before changing their demand to a payment in Monero crypto.
Hackers prefer ransom in bread rather than in crypto
According to Huseyin Can Yuceel, a security researcher at Picus, this unusual demand resembles a marketing strategy aimed at distinguishing this new group on the ransomware stage.
A new blow to the cybersecurity of Schneider Electric
The hackers claim to hold over 400,000 lines of user data and directly addressed CEO Olivier Blum in their message. They highlight the impressive revenue of the company (36 billion euros by the end of 2023) to justify their ransom demand.
The company quickly responded by stating that it “is investigating the incident” while specifying that its “products and services are not affected,” the attack being limited to an isolated environment.