Acea, manager of central Italy’s water, electricity and garbage services fell into the network of Russian hackers with a ransomware attack
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Aceaa public waste management, electricity distribution and water supply company active above all in Lazio, Molise and Campania, is under attack hackers ransomware from Russia.
Hacker attack on Acea: the Postal Police and the ACN in the field
The site of the manager is not reachable ei internal IT services of the company would have been compromised due to a hacker attack in progress since the morning of February 2nd.
Acea itself announced that i services essential supplied to users, i.e. the distribution of water and electricity, have not been compromised thanks to the “prompt management” of the problem in “collaboration with the institutions in charge”.
In fact, the National Cybersecurity Agency intervened to resolve the situation (acn extension) and the National Cybercrime Center for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CNAIPICof the Postal Police.
Acea itself confirmed that i services IT interior of the company for the necessary analysis and control activities.
Russian-speaking group Black Basta behind the hack
According to analysts, behind the attack there would be the Black Basta hacker group, which is allegedly based in Russia and still operates in language Russian.
The gang started making headlines in April of last year, hitting several hundreds of companies worldwide.
The Roman company for energy, the environment and the water service is only the latest of the targets of pro-Russian hackers, whose attacks are reported to have increased by 59% during 2022.
What is ransomware and how it harms businesses
A ransomware is a type of virus that controls the victim’s computer or systems, encrypting the data, and thus preventing its normal functioning.
To restore devices requires the intervention of hackers, who can decrypt files in exchange for a ransom, often in cryptocurrency such as bitcoins, or after a certain period of time necessary to create inconvenience and damage cheap.
In the private sector, this type of virus usually spreads through practices of phishingby e-mail and sms scam that invite the user to share their data with sites that emulate those of companies and institutions.
Sometimes it is possible to get a ramsoware through the clickjackingi.e. unintentionally clicking on a part of a website, in particular on advertisements that conceal the content you are trying to access.
Photo source: 123RF
Hacker attack against Acea from Russia: ransomware spread by Black Basta: who are the cybercriminals