Continental automotive firm allegedly struck by a LockBit attack

A Germany-based multinational automotive manufacturing company, Continental, had allegedly been the recent target of the notorious LockBit ransomware group. LockBit said that they had stolen some of the automotive firm’s data and demanded to pay the ransom within the next 22 hours or they would publish it.

Employing over 190,000 staff worldwide, Continental boasts its reported sales of €33.8 billion in 2021, making them one of the leading automotive parts manufacturers.

There currently are no details shared about which data had been exfiltrated from Continental, but the threat group is eager to leak the automotive firm’s data on their site if they do not cooperate. Thus, experts presume that the firm has yet to negotiate with LockBit.

The automotive firm’s representative said they could not disclose details about the threat group’s claims of breaching their systems. However, they shared a press release link to the researchers dated August 24, which discussed a cyberattack incident on Continental automotive.

 

Based on the shared press release, a security breach was detected by Continental automotive last August, affecting their IT systems.

 

Necessary security measures were applied after the firm discovered the attack, which helped restore their IT systems to normal status. A forensic investigation was also launched to analyse the incident. Nonetheless, the investigation findings have yet to be disclosed by the automotive firm to the public.

First spotted in September 2019, LockBit ransomware is known for operating a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) that they upgraded in June last year, which they called the LockBit 2.0 RaaS. A year later, the threat group released the third version of their RaaS (LockBit 3.0).

Two major companies have been victimised by the LockBit group this year, including the Italian Internal Revenue Service and Entrust, a digital security giant. Last year, one of the biggest attacks launched by the group was their campaign against Accenture, with LockBit demanding a $50 million ransom.

LockBit had also claimed an attack on another leading security firm, Mandiant, which the involved firm said was untrue. According to the investigations, the gang’s claim was only an attempt to detach themselves from being associated with the Evil Corp group after reports emerged about the two group’s connections with one another.