Conti investigating 'month-long' cyber attack on IT systems

Hanover, Germany – Continental AG is investigating a cyberattack earlier in the year that has led to a major loss of data from its systems.

In a “Q&A” published 12 Dec, the German group said its investigations had revealed that the attackers were "able to steal some data", but emphasised that no business activity was affected due to the cyberattack.

Continental said it detected anomalies in its IT system on 4 Aug and stopped the attack with the deployment of a protection software by the next day.

However, the group said that its investigation into the incident indicated that the attackers first accessed Continental’s systems on 1 July.

Continental said it currently assumes that more than 40 terabytes of data were stolen.

The group expects the process to establish the lost data to take "several months", due to the volume of data leak which could exceed 55 million file entries.

Continental said the attackers contacted the group in mid-September and later in early November to demand ransom.

“On 9 Nov, the attackers offered to delete or sell the data on the dark web for $50 million (€47 million),” said Continental.

The ransom figure was reduced to $40 million on 29 Nov, it added.

The attackers, according to Continental, have published a list of the data that they claimed to have in their possession, but no content has been released.

The Hanover group said it “refuses to pay ransoms”, as it would fund “continued attacks on the security of critical infrastructure.”

“This stance is also in line with existing recommendations by the federal office for information security, the federal criminal police office and the German government,” it added.