Royal Mail, the British mail and courier company, has launched a ransomware attack that has made headlines around the world. The attack affected its IT systems and disrupted its operations.
Royal Mail has been unable to send parcels overseas,
affecting large numbers of people and small businesses in the UK and overseas. We've created a timeline that covers internet
events as they unfold in chronological order.
In the timeline,
we have presented the data under 4 categories - Events, Impacts, Risk Factors
and Responses.
As always, the
idea in our Cyber Attack timeline is not to highlight the victim but to
learn from the experiences of others. This attack highlights the growing need
for ransomware preparedness for organizations and businesses around the world.
About Royal Mail Ransomware Attack
Royal Mail
suffered a cyber attack in January 2023. The delivery of parcels and
international letters by Royal Mail through its post office has ceased.
The attackers,
members of the Russian-linked LockBit ransomware group, demanded a large ransom
in exchange for the release key. The ransom note was apparently printed on a
customized form when the hackers hid the international shipping device.
Apparently, the
organization refused to meet the ransom demand which, according to some, was
worth millions.
The attackers
threatened to publish the stolen and encrypted data online.
The company had
to start a manual process, which made customers wait for a long time. The
attack also affected the trust of the customers of an organization that has
built its reputation for more than 500 years!
The Royal Mail
Ransomware attack clearly demonstrated the importance of ransomware backups
more than anything else. Although the idea is not to slander the victim, it is
always important to learn from the experience of others and ask the important
question can our business withstand a ransomware attack?
Timeline of the Royal Mail attack
We've created an
educational timeline that captures the events of the Royal Mail ransomware
attack as they unfold.
This timeline is
based solely on information available on the Internet and free media. Our goal
is simply to bring this information to an easy-to-use monitoring guide that can
help cyber security managers and business owners understand what happened on
the team.
Royal Mail was
quick to notify the Information Commissioner's Office and the UK National Cyber
Security Center in time and quickly issued a statement about the incident. This
demonstrates effective cyber incident response – something every organization
should prioritize today.
Lessons learned from the Royal Mail attack
Royal Mail is a
well-established and long-standing company with a loyal customer base. However,
many small businesses may not be able to recover from an attack of this type
for a long time.
That's why it's
important to carefully consider your ransomware preparedness and mitigation
plan.
If you feel
unprepared to fight ransomware attacks, it may be wise to hire cybersecurity
experts from a cost-effective service such as a Virtual Cyber Assistant.
A cybersecurity
expert can help you assess your cyber security situation and help you build
defenses against ransomware attacks.
They can also
help you run a tabletop Ransomware event that can show you how to better manage
your incident management and response teams to resolve attacks.
The Royal Mail
ransomware attack, like other high-profile incidents, serves as a wake-up call
for organizations to take cyber threats seriously and implement measures to
protect them immediately.
By learning from
this incident and acting quickly, you can reduce your risk of falling victim to
a ransomware attack. But most importantly, you can ensure that if you are
attacked, you can recover with as little damage as possible.
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