Enel Group, an Italian multinational energy company with annual revenue of over €73 bln in 2018, has been hit with a ransomware attack, according to an Oct. 27 report by Bleeping Computer.
Its network of computers was infected with a popular strain of Windows ransomware called NetWalker.
While Enel Group remains mum about the attack, the predicament of the Fortune Global 500 company became evident because of a link in a ransomware note.
Eventually, NetWalker hackers published screenshots of around five terabytes of stolen data while threatening to publish its first batch in a week.
The bad actors are forcing the energy behemoth into paying $16.8 mln (1,234 BTC). The original ransom was reportedly two times smaller but Enel Group wasn’t willing to negotiate the ransom.
![Article image](https://u.today/sites/default/files/styles/736/public/inline-images/netwalker-page-for-enel.jpg)
After initially targeting individual users, such operators as NetWalker later moved on to corporations and even government agencies.
Back in June, hackers successfully extorted $1.14 mln worth of Bitcoin from University of California San Francisco. As reported by U.Today, CWT, one of the largest U.S. travel companies, also paid $4.5 mln in Bitcoin to hackers.
Recently, DarkSide hackers baffled cybersecurity experts by donating some of their ill-gotten funds to charities.