Tipalti team. credit Rami Sinai
Tipalti, an Israeli fintech unicorn (a company with at least a $1 billion valuation) that creates and runs a global financial transfer network, is the latest Israeli firm to be victimized by a cyber-attack. Calcalist reported that the hacker group ALPHV claimed to have hacked Tipalti and is now threatening to reveal private information belonging to the firm’s clients such as Roblox and Amazon’s gaming service Twitch.
“Outing victims before they even get a chance to respond is a bad business practice,” said the hackers, “but given that Tipalti’s insurance policy does not cover cyber extortion and considering the behavior of the executive team in general, observed through internal communications, we believe the likelihood of them reaching out on our terms is unlikely, regardless of the sensitivity of data in question.”
ALPHV, also known as BlackCat or Noberus, is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that first emerged in November 2021. It is considered to be one of the most sophisticated ransomware groups operating today, and it has been responsible for a number of high-profile attacks against organizations in various industries, including finance, healthcare, and energy.
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ALPHV is notable for being one of the first widely known ransomware families to be written in the Rust programming language. Rust is known for its performance, security, and cross-platform compatibility, which has made ALPHV a particularly formidable threat.
It is also known for the “Triple Extortion” tactic, which means that in addition to encrypting an organization’s data, the group also threatens to leak stolen data and disrupt operations through distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
ALPHV is known for its targeted approach to attacks, carefully selecting victims that are likely to be willing to pay large ransoms. The group has demonstrated an ability to infiltrate organizations with strong security measures in place. It has also targeted organizations in various countries around the world, demonstrating its ability to operate on a global scale.
Founded in 2010 by CEO Chen Amit, and Oren Zeev, Tiplati has raised $550 million to date in several rounds, at a value that reached $ 8.3 billion this year, placing it among the 15 private fintech companies with the highest valuation in the world.
The company has offices in Israel, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and soon Australia. The Israeli development center currently employs 350 people.
Tiplati surged during the Covid crisis. The number of money transactions owing to businesses and organizations using online technologies. Tipalti’s clients includes Amazon Twitch, Twitter, Business Insider, GoDaddy, Fiverr, and Vimeo. It transfers $30 billion annually.
In 2021 Tipalti bought the Israeli company Approve.com, which creates cloud-based acquisition solutions.
