Headlines

Jeweler Graff Hit By Ransomware Hackers

Celebrities’ personal data has been leaked following the attack on the London “jeweler to the stars.”

Published

2 years ago

November 4, 2021

INSTORE Staff

Hackers have hit London high-society jeweler Graff with a ransomware attack.

The attackers “plundered the personal details of world leaders, Hollywood A-listers and billionaire tycoons in a massive ‘virtual heist,'” the Daily Mail reports. They’re reported to have leaked nearly 70,000 files, including data related to Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey and David Beckham, onto the dark web.

It’s believed that Russian gang Conti is responsible for the incident and is demanding “tens of millions of dollars to decrypt the Graff systems and prevent further sensitive information from being released,” Security Boulevard reports.

The data of about 11,000 clients is believed to be involved. The hackers claim that the data released so far represents only 1 percent of what they took. Examples of documents released so far include receipts and credit notes.

A Graff spokesperson confirmed to Rapaport News that the company was the target of “a sophisticated — though limited — cyberattack by professional and determined criminals.”

The breach mainly involved “basic, publicly available data,” Rapaport News reports, citing a source close to the jewelry company.

It Was Time to Make a Decision. It Was Time to Call Wilkerson.

Except for a few years when he worked as an accountant, Jim Schwartz has always been a jeweler. He grew up in the business and after “counting beans” for a few years, he and his wife, Robin, opened Robin James Jewelers in Cincinnati, Ohio. “We were coming to a stage in our life where we knew we have to make a decision,” says Jim Schwartz. He and Robin wanted to do it right, so they called Wilkerson. The best surprise (besides surpassing sales goals)? “The workers and associations really care about helping us move out own inventory out of the store first. It was very important to us.”