The Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) has again rejected the idea that its systems have been breached. The last statement from the organization comes after the conclusion of the preliminary report about the alleged hack by the Trinity ransomware group. As reported by El Confidencialthe progress of the investigation suggests that a cyberattack could have affected an external private company, with no connection to the AEAT.
From the agency attached to the Ministry of Finance they explain that they have not found evidence that their computer infrastructure or the data in their custody have been affected. In this sense, they add that the Trinity group, which claims to be responsible for the apparent incident, has not requested a ransom nor has it demonstrated possession of taxpayer data. However, the warning signs are still present.
A tax and labor advisory firm, in the spotlight
The AEAT says that the data obtained in the investigation indicates that a hack would have affected “a private entity specialized in tax and labor advice.” The name of any company has not been provided, but it has been pointed out that this type of entities handle tax data of both individual clients and small businesses. That is, according to the statement, the state agency has not been affected.
The message posted by the Trinity group
As we indicated above, we are dealing with preliminary information, so we will have to wait until the final report on what happened is published. Cybercriminals claim to have 560 GB of data from the AEAT, information that they promise to publish if a ransom of 38 million dollars is not paid. In these types of situations is where we must interpret all the information prudently and not draw hasty conclusions.
Let us remember that the main objective of cybercriminals in this type of scenario is get money, and they are usually willing to set up any type of deception to achieve it. At the moment, nothing assures us that the data they have (if they have it) was recently stolen or corresponds to a compilation of past breaches.
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