One of the main energy groups in Europe and the largest of Portugal, EDP – Energias de Portugal, has suffered a major computer attack. The action, carried out this Monday, “is driving the normal functioning of part of the services and operations of the corporate network”.
Although the cyber attack has had no impact on the supply of energy, says the company in a press release sent to the media, the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Notícias ensures that the attackers asked for a ransom of around € 10 million to the company to not disseminate information that is alleged to have stolen of their systems.
The confirmation of the attack and the possibility of requesting a ransom for the alleged theft of confidential information coincide with the suspension of the web service of the Spanish branch of EDP. “Web maintenance”, is the message that is received when you try to access edpenergia.it is.
10 TB of alleged stolen information
According to the information published by Jornal de Notíciasa group of hackers managed to penetrate the internal system of EDP and reach one of the servers of the electric company. After this, issued a request for rescue in the dark red on the demand 1.580 bitcoinswhich with the current exchange rate of the criptomoneda would be close to 10 million euros.
The attackers claim that have been produced 10 terabytes of information of the servers in the group business. To prove it, reports the newspaper luso, we have posted some pictures from the archives “only to demonstrate to the leaders of the EDP that the threat is real and that they are indeed in possession of information considered sensitive”.
If you do not receive the amount of the ransom, threaten to publish all the information available in newspapers and blogs, as well as contact with customers, suppliers and competitors of EDP to alert them of the exposure of their data. Jornal de Notícias it also ensures that the attackers have given a square of 20 days to EDP for the payment of the ransom.
The EDP group has been reported in the press release sent to the media that your action against this attack is articulating with the competent authorities. In addition, point out that in order to contain their effects “have been quickly applied measures of prevention and protection of the systems of support of operations of the company, and we are analyzing the origin and the anatomy of the incident, so that services and operations can be restored quickly”.
From Engadget we have been in contact with EDP Spain to try to confirm the information appearing in the Portuguese press and know why the website of the branch is falling since yesterday.
it was originally published in
Engadget
by
Toni Castillo
.
