Motilal Oswal falls prey to cyber-attack by ransomware group LockBit, shares fall 2%

Shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services fall over two percent in early trade on February 19 after the domestic broking firm was targeted in a cyber-attack by ransomware group LockBit, according to TechCrunch.

The ransomware group added Motilal Oswal to its dark web leak site on Tuesday, in an attempt to blackmail the brokerage for ransom payments. On failure to meet their demands, LockBit threatened to make all the stolen data public.

At 9.17 am, shares of the brokerage were quoting Rs 1,800 apiece on the NSE, down 2.1 percent.

The domestic brokerage has around six million clients, with total assets under management of around $53 billion.

A spokesperson for the company did not respond to Moneycontrol queries.

India’s Computer Emergency Response Team was in the process of taking all appropriate action, according to the TechCrunch report.

Last year, LockBit launched cyber attacks on Granules India and public sector enterprise National Aerospace Laboratories. The gang is one of the most prolific ransomware gangs of all time, who have previously attacked IT major Accenture, UK’s Royal Mail, Boeing, and the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China.

“This had a major effect on the operations of our business due to significant changes in our IT systems and the time needed for meeting the regulatory expectations, qualifications, recertifications, and fine-tuning of quality and production systems,” the company said.

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Motilal Oswal Financial Services provides various diversified financial services in India. It offers a range of financial products and services, such as wealth management, retail broking and distribution, institutional broking, asset management, commodity broking, private equity, investment banking, and principal strategies.

Over the past one month, shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services have gained more than 15 percent, with shares settling…