On July 26, Jeff Burt reported:
The LockBit ransomware crew is claiming to have stolen 78GB of data from Italy’s tax agency and is threatening to leak it if a ransom isn’t paid by July 31.
The notorious gang put a notice on its dark-web site adding the agency – the Agenzia delle Entrate – to its growing list of victims. According to LockBit, the data stolen includes documents, financial reports, and contracts.
Read more at The Register.
The attack has not been confirmed by the tax agency, and as Burt noted in his reporting, early statements by the agency denied any attack.
There has been no update to the tax agency’s web site since July 25 when it posted a notice:
Could Sogei be wrong in claiming no attack based on preliminary investigation? It’s possible, but the burden of proof is on those who make the claim. Could LockBit 3.0 have been wrong in claiming the tax agency as a victim? On July 27, they updated their listing on their leak site. It displays eight screencaps. But those screencaps do not point clearly to the federal tax agency. Where are files such as documents on letterhead of the agency? Could folders in a directory be from some accounting firm or have some other explanation?
In light of the preliminary denial and the “proofpack” that doesn’t seem to clearly point to the agency, DataBreaches urges continued caution in just repeating the claimed attack.