One of Nottinghamshire's biggest companies is currently reportedly being held to a £53m ransom by hackers. Car dealership group Pendragon, which is based in Annesley, is said to have been victim to a cyberattack and being held to a $60m (£53m) ransom.
It's reported that the hackers want the company, which owns around 160 showrooms across the UK and uses the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone names, to pay the huge ransom sum into a bitcoin wallet. It's also been reported that the hackers have threatened to release sensitive data on the dark web on October 21 if this amount is not paid.
The firm reportedly had its IT servers hacked, with dark web hackers allegedly stealing part of its database. The Times reported that Pendragon are defying the demands.
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Pendragon has not taken part in discussions about payment, adding it has taken steps to protect the remainder of its system. The company said it could not yet detail which data had been accessed, but that it was operating as normal.
A spokesperson for Pendragon said: "We have identified suspicious activity on part of our IT systems and have confirmed we experienced an IT security incident. This has not affected our ability to operate, and we continue to service our customers and communities as normal.
"Upon discovery, we took immediate steps to contain the incident. Our security specialists launched an extensive investigation to assess fully what has happened and we’ll be keeping our customers and partners updated. To add, the Pinewood Dealer Management System was and remains completely unaffected.
"We have reported this with The National Cyber Security Centre https://www.ncsc.gov.uk, the Information Commissioner’s Office https://ico.org.uk, The FCA https://www.fca.org.uk and the police. Regarding data accessed, the investigation is still at an early stage and it is not possible to comment further."
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