Multi-million whiskey auction postponed indefinitely after facing a cyber-attack

In a series of uncanny events this year, an online whiskey auction recently fell victim to a cyber-attack.

The million-dollar auction, famously dubbed as “the Perfect Collection” was supposed to go live on April 10 upto April 20 but has been postponed indefinitely because of hackers.

The whiskeys to be sold were acquired by late Richard Gooding, a collector from Colorado, United States.

According to CNN, Gooding pursued the spirits for decades, and travelled to new territories in pursuit of rare alcohol. He went to Scotland to fetch special bottles that were mostly procured via auctions and distilleries.

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Gooding had amassed over 3,900 bottles over the years. Most of these are single malt Scotch. Some individual bottles are valued at over $1.4 million, as per the auctioneers.

The rare whiskies include bottles from The Macallan, Bowmore, and Springbank, with additional drinks from distilleries no longer functional - Stromness Distiller and Dallas Dhu.

The first part of the auction, which happened earlier in 2020 saw the auction of over 1,900 bottles. worth $3.9 million.

The second part, which is now postponed was set included a bottle which was to garner over $1.2 million at auction. This was The Macallan 1926 Fine & Rare 60 Year Old.

CNN reported that the bidding process was set to end on April 20 at 7 pm local time, but was postponed by two days. Initially, this delay was blamed on “excessive load on the website” which had triggered technical issues.

However, a statement released by the auctioneer reveals that they were targeted as part of a criminal attack.

"At approximately 22.30 (BST) on 21 April, WhiskyAuctioneer.com experienced a targeted, technologically sophisticated, sustained and malicious attack on our website and databases," the auctioneer said in a statement, further adding an indefinite delay.

"We extend our apologies to those who are disappointed in the postponement of the auction and those who may be impacted by the attack”, the statement added.

"The team here is working extremely hard to investigate this and minimise the impacts on our valued customers as a result of this situation," they added.