Clothing Brand Zegna Hit by Ransomware

Luxury Italian fashion house Zegna disclosed it had become the victim of a ransomware attack. The news was revealed in the company's due public filing that was posted on April 11, 2022

Attack dates back to 2021

The catch here is that the attack took place much earlier. In fact, Zegna was hit by the ransomware gang all the way back in mid-2021. The fashion company announced a cyber intrusion last year in August but did not specify the exact nature of the incident.

Now it's become clear that the intrusion was indeed a ransomware attack. The RansomExx gang took responsibility for the attack and even leaked some accounting information stolen during the attack.

Another curious thing about this particular attack is Zegna's approach to the attack. The company staunchly refused to play along and pay the ransom money, even though they had previously been threatened by the hackers that information would get leaked.

This decision was made despite the fact that the "majority" of the company's IT systems were affected. Instead of playing along with the ransomware gang, Zegna instead "refused to engage in discussions relating to the payment of the ransom".

Zegna remains staunch

The company instead got to work, restoring its network from backups kept on secure servers. The company's reaction and defiant position in the face of the two-pronged attack that included extortion in addition to the data loss caused by the ransomware is a rare sight. A major part of ransomware victims end up paying the ransom and refusing to pay has become something of an exception.

Granted, threats to leak financial and accounting data are not as horrible as threats that may be levied against an organization or company that got much more sensitive files and data exfiltrated from its servers. Despite that, Zegna's firm position is still commendable and will hopefully be adopted by more companies in the future.