DragonForce purports breach of leading German insurer

Major German insurance provider HanseMerkur had almost 97 GB of internal corporate data allegedly stolen by the DragonForce ransomware gang, Cybernews reports.

Numerous financial documents, including invoices, tax notes, and vouchers, as well as documents referencing Emirates Insurance, which is HanseMerkur's partner in the United Arab Emirates, were part of the data trove leaked by DragonForce. HanseMerkur has yet to acknowledge DragonForce's claims. Attacks by the Russia-nexus ransomware operation, which recently established a ransomware-as-a-service partnership with the Qilin and LockBit gangs, have compromised 185 organizations last year, data from Cybernews' Ransomlooker tool showed.

Among DragonForce's most high-profile hits last year are Mobilelink US, which is the leading cell phone and service dealer of Cricket Wireless, major U.S. department store chain Belk, and popular UK retailers Marks & Spencer and Co-op. DragonForce was previously reported by Group-IB researchers to have prohibited targeting of critical infrastructure organizations, hospitals, and non-governmental organizations, as well as nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States.