French telecom giant Altice has reportedly been hit by a ransomware attack by the Hive hacker group.
The website RedPacket Security, which produces reports based on data scraped from the dark web, lists Altice as having been subject to a Hive ransomware attack on 9th August, with disclosure of the attack coming through on 25th August.
It's currently unclear how large the attack was, or what data may have been affected, but RedPacket's listing states that files are currently available to download through the Tor browser.
RELATED RESOURCE
An EDR buyer's guide
How to pick the best endpoint detection and response solution for your business
Altice is the second largest telecommunications company in France, behind Orange. Headquartered in the Netherlands, it serves millions of customers in Western Europe, Israel and the Caribbean.
The company formerly operated a US subsidiary, but after going public in 2017 this was spun off into Altice USA, a separately managed company that is still headed by Altice founder and chairman Patrick Drahi.
In 2021, Altice acquired a 12.1% stake in BT under direction by Drahi. This was increased to an 18% stake in December 2021, bringing the company’s total state in BT up to 18% and making it the largest BT shareholder. In response, the government announced in May that it would investigate the acquisition of shares for the benefit of national security.
However, just days ago the government stated in a press release that “no further action” would be taken on the acquisition of the shares, and consequently Altice will retain its large hold on BT for the foreseeable future.
Hive was first identified as a ransomware group in June 2021, and since has been used in attacks such those made recently against Costa Rican health providers.
In July, Microsoft warned that Hive’s threat actors had developed a more sophisticated variant of the ransomware written in the coding language Rust, with increased efficiency at encrypting the files of victims and containing parameters that are harder to identify and remedy in infected systems.
Ransomware attacks are on the rise, with one in 40 organisations now hit by threat actors and providers of critical infrastructure at increasing risk
IT Pro has approached Altice for comment. This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
-
RSAC Conference 2025: The front line of cyber innovationITPro Podcast Ransomware, quantum computing, and an unsurprising focus on AI were highlights of this year's event
-
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei thinks we're burying our heads in the sand on AI job lossesNews With AI set to hit entry-level jobs especially, some industry execs say clear warning signs are being ignored
-
LockBit data dump reveals a treasure trove of intel on the notorious hacker groupNews An analysis of May's SQL database dump shows how much LockBit was really making
-
‘I take pleasure in thinking I can rid society of at least some of them’: A cyber vigilante is dumping information on notorious ransomware criminals – and security experts say police will be keeping close tabsNews An anonymous whistleblower has released large amounts of data allegedly linked to the ransomware gangs
-
It's been a bad week for ransomware operatorsNews A host of ransomware strains have been neutralized, servers seized, and key players indicted
-
Everything we know about the Peter Green Chilled cyber attackNews A ransomware attack on the chilled food distributor highlights the supply chain risks within the retail sector
-
Scattered Spider: Who are the alleged hackers behind the M&S cyber attack?News The Scattered Spider group has been highly active in recent years
-
Ransomware attacks are rising — but quiet payouts could mean there's more than actually reported
News Ransomware attacks continue to climb, but they may be even higher than official figures show as companies choose to quietly pay to make such incidents go away.
-
Cleo attack victim list grows as Hertz confirms customer data stolen – and security experts say it won't be the lastNews Hertz has confirmed it suffered a data breach as a result of the Cleo zero-day vulnerability in late 2024, with the car rental giant warning that customer data was stolen.
-
‘Phishing kits are a force multiplier': Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25 – and experts warn it’s lowering the barrier of entry for amateur hackersNews Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
