Christie's: Cyber criminals threaten to publish stolen data
At Christie's, data has been tapped that will soon be made public. The auction house fears above all that it will become public where works of art are stored.
(Image: Tobias Arhelger/Shutterstock.com)
The cybercriminals from RansomHub claim to be responsible for a cyberattack on the renowned auction house Christie's and are threatening to make sensitive personal information public. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing the ransomware group's website. Christie's itself has admitted to a successful intrusion, but in a statement only refers to a "limited amount of personal data relating to our customers". There is no evidence that any financial information or transaction data was compromised, the financial news agency quotes the auction house as saying. RansomHub has published a "random sample" of names, nationalities and dates of birth.
Successful auction thanks to unusual website
The cyber incident became public on May 9, when Christie's took its own website offline. This was shortly before the important May auctions and could have had serious financial consequences, as there were doubts as to whether the associated online auctions would be able to take place. Although the site was down for 10 days, the auctions were successfully held. The auction house had switched to a rudimentary website with an extremely unusual URL and was apparently able to convince customers to become active there. According to the New York Times, the auction round was a success and provided little evidence that bidding had been more cautious.
RansomHub's countdown is reportedly due to end at the end of May. If Christie's does not pay the requested sum by then, all the stolen data will be made public. The criminals are threatening the auction house with high GDPR penalties as a result. According to Bloomberg, however, Christie's itself is most concerned that the threatened publication will reveal exactly where very valuable works of art are stored. The company is in contact with the supervisory authorities concerned and its customers. Christie's is headquartered in London and turns over billions every year with its auctions.
(mho)