A storied Russian vodka maker has filed for chapter within the US simply months after it was breached by ransomware actors.
Stoli Group USA and Kentucky Owl (KO) CEO, Chris Caldwell, revealed in a authorized submitting that the group is round $78 million debt.
Among the many contributing elements listed is a critical ransomware assault in August 2024 which brought about “extreme disruption” to the agency’s IT infrastructure.
“The assault brought about substantial operational points all through all firms inside the Stoli Group, together with Stoli USA and KO, as a result of Stoli Group’s enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) system being disabled and many of the Stoli Group’s inside processes (together with accounting capabilities) being compelled right into a handbook entry mode. These methods can be totally restored no sooner than within the first quarter of 2025,” learn the court docket paperwork.
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The information is one other reminder of the doubtless existential risk to companies of ransomware. On a a lot smaller scale, a UK logistics agency entered administration in September 2023 after a critical ransomware breach, ensuing within the lack of over 700 jobs.
In Stoli Group’s case, the ransomware assault didn’t simply have a direct operational price – it additionally meant the agency was unable to supply key monetary stories to its lenders, contributing to its present woes.
The agency was additionally hit by retaliation from the Putin regime for its help for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. Founder Yuri Shefler and the group’s two major holding firms have been labelled “extremists” and two of its distilleries in Russia valued at $100m have been confiscated by the federal government, in accordance with the submitting.
Stoli Group stated it has additionally been compelled to spend “dozens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}” in a 20+ 12 months court docket battle with the Russian authorities to defend its Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodka emblems from the Russian state enterprise FKP Sojuzplodoimport.
It’s unclear whether or not the ransomware assault was approved by the Kremlin, however the authorities in Russia are understood to show a blind eye to assaults focusing on perceived enemies of the regime.
Picture credit score: Oleg Kozlovskyy / Shutterstock.com
