Ransomware strikes AXA

There seems to be a growing trend at the moment for ransomware gangs to attack insurance companies.  In Mar-21 CNA Insurance suffered an extensive ransomware attack which ultimately resulted in major operational disruption and a ransom payment of $40 million to the attackers as reported by Bloomberg.

This week AXA falls victim shortly after the French insurer said it would no longer reimburse ransomware payments under new policies it writes in that country, although a source familiar with the attack said there was no connection between AXA’s decision and the attack on its own networks.

The so-called Avaddon ransomware operators posted screenshots of information online that they said they obtained from AXA’s Asia Assistance subsidiary. The screenshots include a claim that the operators stole three terabytes of data, such as customer medical reports and claims, customer IDs and bank account papers, payments to customers and other health information.