Vivartia – MIG : Hit by Ransomware and paid 75.000 Euro in Bitcoins

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Vivartia, one of MIG‘s most important food companies, has recently been hacked, with dozens of systems losing access to their records.

Specifically, according to reliable sources, in some cases Delta’s factories stopped supplying DELTA products because it was impossible to issue invoices and monitor suppliers while Everest mass caterers did not operate cash registers.

Hackers, for whose identity we do not have any information yet, infected systems with ransomware by encrypting the files. For their decryption they were asking for EUR 75,000 to Bitcoin.

Eventually, the company paid ransom because the IT security companies that were asked for help said they could not solve the problem.

Upon payment, the hackers unlocked the files by restoring the systems to smooth operation.

Note that malicious users may have exploited the human agent in the attack by sending a phishing message to an employee of the company.

Another equally likely cause is the fact that some Vivartia offices were running old computers running Windows XP (WinXP).