Global IT service provider Inetum hit by ransomware attack

French IT services company Inetum Group, which has presence in more than 26 countries, providing digital services to companies in various sectors: aerospace and defense, banking, automotive, energy and utilities, health, insurance, retail, public sector, transport, telecommunications and media was hit by a ransomware attack that had limited impact on the company and its customers.

As a service provider for a large number of companies and with a turnover of nearly $ 2 billion, the group is an attractive target for ransomware gangs.

On Sunday, December 19, Inetum became the target of a ransomware attack that affected some of its operations in France and did not spread to the larger infrastructures used by customers.

Inetum’s  crisis managemnet team acted quickly to protect sensitive connections that could put customers at risk if they were compromised. To do this, the operational teams isolated all the servers on the affected network and terminated the client VPN connections.

An initial investigation determined the strain of ransomware used in the attack and that the recent critical vulnerability Log4j was not exploited during the incident. However, Inetum Group did not disclose the name of the malware used but according to Valery Marchive, editor-in-chief of the French publication LeMagIt, the attackers used BlackCat ransomware, also known as ALPHV and Noberus.

The Inetum group informed the authorities of the attack and is working with units specializing in cybercrime. A third party was also called in for incident response services. For now, customer delivery operations are secure and messaging and collaboration systems are unaffected, the company said.