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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also interested in Thales weapons. During his time as finance minister, he examined an anti-tank guided missile delivered to Ukraine
Photo: Paul Faith / dpa
The French armaments company Thales has apparently become the victim of a hacker attack.
A group called LockBit 3.0 said it stole data and is threatening to release it on November 7, the company said.
Thales also develops technology for the aerospace industry.
The French state is a co-owner of the company, which operates a site in Germany based in Ditzingen in Baden-Württemberg.
The hackers have so far presented no evidence that they actually stole data, the company said to the news agency Reuters.
So far, no ransom note has been received.
However, the group has initiated internal investigations and informed the French national cyber security authority ANSSI.
However, Thales has not yet filed a complaint.
Busy extortion group
LockBit is one of the most active hacker groups in the field of so-called ransomware.
In this scam, criminals steal and encrypt their victims' data, rendering it unusable.
They then demand large sums of ransom, often in the millions from large companies, before releasing the data again.
Security authorities assume that many of the perpetrators operate from Russia.
(Read more about the criminal scam here)
According to SPIEGEL information, investigations into LockBit are already underway in Germany at the Cologne public prosecutor's central and contact point for cybercrime.
The group has also attacked numerous companies in Germany and is counted among the particularly active and dangerous ransomware gangs by the Federal Criminal Police Office.
According to data from the IT analysis company Malwarebytes, 430 attacks by the group became known worldwide between March and August.
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Explosively, LockBit stole data in January and actually published it, which is said to come from the Thales group of companies.
At the time, the company told the French newspaper Le Parisien that the data was "of low sensitivity" and came from outside the company's central information systems.
http/Reuters