A well-known manufacturer of luxury yachts for the ultra-rich was hit with a ransomware attack over the Easter weekend, but it’s unclear if sensitive customer information was stolen.
German shipbuilder Lürssen, founded in 1875, is said to have close to €2 billion ($2.2 billion) in annual sales and has an arguably exclusive list of customers, making it attractive to digital extortionists. being targeted.
“Working with internal and external experts, we immediately initiated all necessary protective measures and notified the responsible authorities,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying in a short statement.
The Bremen-based company has built many of the world’s largest superyachts, but it also builds seagoing vessels for the German Navy.
According to local reports, the attacks brought much of the company’s operations to a halt, and the Luersen Kräger shipyard in Schleswig-Holstein is one of the company’s few divisions still operating today.
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The attack follows similar extortion attempts targeting other luxury brands such as Ferrari, Moncler and Zegna.
In the case of Moncler, some data about its employees and customers was exposed on the dark web after the breach.
Darren Williams, CEO and founder of Blackfog, said the Lürssen attackers likely singled out Lürssen as a potentially lucrative target.
“Attackers don’t discriminate. Unless the dollar sign is at play, I would say that ransomware is increasingly associated with the ultra-rich sector,” he argues. bottom.
“Even the best-capitalized organizations in the world cannot claim resilience against cyber-attacks without having modern data loss prevention tools in place and a strong backup/incident response plan to prepare for the worst.” .”
There is evidence to suggest that ransomware attackers are increasing their extortion demands as victims pay less and more organizations improve their basic security.
A recent study by Trend Micro found that each payment made by a victim effectively helped attack 6 to 10 more organizations.
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