Recently, Ultra Intelligence & Communications, a well-known security company in the United States, was attacked by a Black Cat hacker, resulting in the leakage of Swiss Air Force documents on the dark web.
Ultra Intelligence & Communications (ULTRA) is a leading global technology company headquartered in the United Kingdom. The company provides advanced intelligence, communications, and security technology solutions to clients such as the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, NATO, the American Telegraph Company, the Swiss Federal Ministry of Defense, and defense contractor Ruag.
After the attack, the Swiss Federal Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Swiss Air Force had been affected by the attack, and the Swiss authorities immediately launched an investigation into the incident.
According to Swissinfo, Black Cat stole about 30 g of sensitive files from Ultra. Included in the leaked documents is a contract between the Swiss Ministry of Defense and an American company for nearly $5 million (4.28 million Swiss francs). According to this and other leaked documents, the Swiss Ministry of Defence purchased the Air Force's encrypted communications technology. At the same time, among the leaked documents, there are also emails and payment receipts that show when the transaction took place.
However, the Federal Ministry of Defense confirmed that the operating systems of the armed forces were not affected by the incident.
The Blackcat Ransomware (a.k.a. Alph**M, Alph**, or AlphV) was first revealed by MalwareHuntertam researchers in mid-November 2021 as the first family of software written in the Rust language and has quickly gained market gain due to its highly customized and personalized attacks.
Not only is the software capable of conducting attacks in a variety of enterprise environments, but it has also successfully executed several high-profile attacks in a short period of time, with victims including automotive consumer electronics giant Voxx Electronics, U.S. courts, well-known watch brand Seiko, and many more.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as of September last year, the Alphv Blackcat ransomware gang has successfully attacked more than 1,000 victims around the world, "raising" more than $300 million in ransoms, of which nearly 75% of the victims are from the United States, and the remaining about 250 are scattered around the world.