The hacker group stated that it had accessed sensitive information about wealthy art collectors worldwide and threatened to release this data at the end of May if a substantial ransom is not paid.
The New York Times reported that while it could not immediately verify RansomHub’s claims, cybersecurity experts confirmed the existence of the group and considered their claim about the Christie’s attack to be plausible.
A Christie’s spokesperson commented on the breach, saying, “Our investigations determined there was unauthorized access by a third party to parts of Christie’s network. We also determined that the group behind the incident took a limited amount of personal data relating to some of our clients. There is no evidence that any financial or transactional records were compromised.”
RansomHub’s dark web message claimed that attempts to negotiate with Christie’s broke down when the auction house ceased communication. The group warned that publishing the stolen data could result in Christie’s facing hefty fines under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which is part of European privacy and human rights law.
Ransomware Extortion
Ransomware attacks have become increasingly frequent, with cybercriminals extorting vast sums of money each year.
