Treasury reviewing contracts with hacked insurance co Shirbit

Shirbit insurance company building in Netanya / Photo: Tamar Matsafi, Globes

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"We take a grave view of the event and are monitoring the findings of the regulatory bodies."

The Ministry of Finance "takes a grave view" of the leak of information from Insurance company Shirbit, and is examining possible steps in relation to its contract with the company.

The Ministry of Finance said in a statement, "The incident of the leak of information from Shirbit is at present being examined and supervised by the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority and the National Cyber Directorate. We take a grave view of the event and we are monitoring developments in the matter and the findings of the regulatory bodies. Decisions will be made in accordance with the findings and subject to the law."

Together with other insurance companies, Shirbit has won tenders published by the Ministry of Finance Accountant General in recent years for insuring civil servants' vehicles. For example, in 2017, in a tender for insuring 70,000 vehicles, Shirbit committed to insuring 3% of them. The insurance is due for renewal on January 1, 2021.

Yesterday, the hackers who broke into Shirbit's computer systems and are attempting to blackmail the company, published correspondence allegedly indicating demand for the information they have obtained, including a message that says, "I'm interested in giving the information to a security agency in order to win points with them. If you help me, you will do a big favor to me and to the people in Iran."

Shortly after 9am yesterday, the deadline that the hackers gave for their ultimatum to Shirbit - pay 200 Bitcoin (about $4 million) or we'll sell the information that we hold on your customers - the hackers published a "final notice", saying "The company denied the depth of the break-in and the value of the information stolen, and this behavior continued at the weekend."

Form the data that has so far been leaked, it would appear that the main risk to Shirbit's customers is from photocopies of their identity cards and driving licenses, which could be used to impersonate them online. The rest of the documents do represent an infringement of privacy, but do not have consequences for impersonation or other services. The recommendation is that anyone who knows that their identity card has been leaked should obtain a new smart identity card.

Shirbit meanwhile has said that it will not surrender to "cyber terror" and will not pay the ransom demanded. "According to expert assessments," the company said, "this is not a normal attempt at cyber blackmail with a financial aim, but a cyber incident the true aim of which is to embarrass the company and thereby embarrass Israel."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 7, 2020