There is a new development affecting Munster Technological University in Ireland. The school, which disclosed a ransomware incident on February 5, reportedly informed the High Court that AlphV/BlackCat was responsible for the attack, and a high ransom was being demanded. MTU told the court they would not be paying any ransom.
The amount of the ransom demand was not revealed in open court.
BlackCat’s threat to publish data concerning staff and students prompted MTU to seek (and obtain) a temporary emergency injunction. RTÉ reports the injunction prevents those involved in the attack and anyone else who has knowledge of the order from publishing, making it available to the public, or sharing any of the university’s confidential material.
The order also requires the defendants or any other person possessing the confidential data to hand over any material they may have to MTU. The court is allowing MTU to serve the order on BlackCat via BlackCat’s dark web page where MTU read the ransom demand and was to respond.
The order obviously will not stop the threat actors from leaking the data on their dark web leak site or elsewhere, but it should at least prevent specific information on staff and students from being published in Ireland.
MTU first detected an attack on February 5. BlackCat’s demands gave them until 11:45 pm last night to pay.
Read more at RTÉ.
As of the time of this publication, there is no listing for MTU on BlackCat’s leak site.