Hackers threaten to leak personal information after attacking Israel insurance firm 

An Israeli insurance company is being threatened by hackers who broke into the firm earlier this month and stole files consisting of personal details of its workersr and clients.

Known as The Black Shadow group, they demanded last week that Shirbit pay out almost a million dollars within 24 hours or have the information stolen from them sold online.

As the insurance company refused, the group released an image yesterday of Shirbit’s CEO, Zvi Leibushor’s passport and the identity documents of some of the company’s clients.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported that Black Shadow said: “The sale of the first package is finished. Now we are going to sell the second package.”

The Black Shadow account received a payment of five bitcoins, worth about $104,000, Walla news website reported.

However, due to the anonymous nature of bitcoin transfers, details of who made the transactions remains hidden.

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Shirbit said in response: “This is the psychological warfare we expected and is in regard to the same information that was already disseminated.”

“Shirbit’s defense systems blocked attack attempts and efforts to thwart attacks are ongoing and are coordinated with leading cyber experts and government officials,” the company said.

A source who is involved in the investigation was quoted by Channel 12 saying that the authorities believe that an Israeli individual or someone based in the country may be involved in the ransomware attack.

Among its customers, Shirbit has business relations with government entities, including the Tel Aviv District Court president.

Shirbit specialises in real estate, auto and travel insurance. A month ago it won a bid to provide auto insurance for the country’s civil service employees during 2021.