According to Il Messaggero newspaper, the hackers demanded a ransom to be paid in five days, threatening to make the stolen data public otherwise. The files include corporate documents, financial reports and contracts, the hackers said in a statement published on their website on the dark web, as cited in the report.
The incident is being investigated by Italy's Postal and Communications Police, which is part of the Ministry of the Interior and specializes on cybercrime. Technical specialists of the tax office are evaluating the possible damage from the attack.
Lockbit is a virus software that encrypts and blocks access to the systems of the computer and demands a ransom from the user for data recovery. The cryptographer virus is used in targeted attacks, which began in September 2019, against large enterprises and other organizations.