Ransomware and other cyber attacks

[ska invita]

Big one

Officials admit that the data may have included contact details and addresses of applicants, their dates of birth, national ID numbers, criminal history, employment status and financial data such as contribution amounts, debts and payments.

Hackers have claimed that they accessed 2.1m pieces of data, a figure that has so far been unverified.

Legal aid hack: data from hundreds of thousands of people accessed, says MoJ

Data including criminal records downloaded in ‘significant’ cyber-attack at Legal Aid Agency in April, ministry confirms

www.theguardian.com

 

[ska invita]

Sounds like a close shave here - one big one away from empty supermarket shelves:


A distributor to the UK's major supermarkets has said it is being held to ransom by cyber hackers.

Logistics firm Peter Green Chilled said it supplies supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Aldi, but it is relatively small compared with larger UK food distributors.

It told BBC's Wake Up to Money clients were "receiving regular updates" including "workarounds" on how to continue deliveries while one of its customers said thousands of their products could go to waste.

Recent major cyber-attacks on Marks & Spencer and Co-op were larger, but the attack highlights the challenges smaller logistics firms face, an industry source said.
In an email sent on Thursday, seen by the BBC, Peter Green Chilled said it had been the victim of a ransomware attack.

A ransomware attack is when hackers encrypt a victim's data and lock them out of computer systems, demanding payment to hand back control.

The email said no orders would be processed on Thursday, although any order prepared on Wednesday would be sent.

Peter Green Chilled confirmed to the BBC the cyber attack happened on Wednesday evening but it said it was not in a position to discuss further.

"The transport activities of the business have continued unaffected throughout this incident," its managing director Tom Binks said.

One of Peter Green Chilled's customers, Black Farmer founder Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, said he had "something like ten pallets worth of meat products" with Peter Green Chilled.

He said if those products don't get to the retailers in time they will have to be "thrown in the bin".

Ten pallets is "thousands and thousands of packs of products, sitting there, and the clock is ticking," he said. "There's no information. Everything along the chain has to be stopped, and then there are thousands of pounds worth of product that are just wasting away."

 

[ska invita]

Incredible headline

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/30/uk-businesses-hit-by-cyber-attack-last-year-repor

More than 25% of UK businesses hit by cyber-attack in last year, report finds​

(so incredible it might not be true and the report is wrong - but nonetheless this is out of control)

 

[teqniq]

Link does not work:

More than 25% of UK businesses hit by cyber-attack in last year, report finds

Exclusive: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says lack of action leaves firms at risk of ‘sleepwalking’ into problems

www.theguardian.com

 

[two sheds]

Guardian site's probably been hacked.

 

[ska invita]

Guardian site's probably been hacked.

again!

 

[Chz]

We've had the least important, least secure thing we host hacked. The University blogs. I'm shocked it's taken six years. No-one here understands WordPress, and no-one ever updates it or changes admin passwords either. It's a complete shitshow, and I wiped myself clean of it years ago thank god. It's not the first time we had something set up by an "expert" (TBF, it is well segregated. The architecture is sound.) who then left 6 months later with no handover documents. So it rolls on in zombie mode for 5 years until something kills it.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

Incredible headline

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/30/uk-businesses-hit-by-cyber-attack-last-year-repor

More than 25% of UK businesses hit by cyber-attack in last year, report finds​

(so incredible it might not be true and the report is wrong - but nonetheless this is out of control)

A former CISO I reported to, used to quote the firewall numbers to management in order to wrangle a better budget.
“Last month, the security team stopped 65 million attacks”

 

[alex_]

A former CISO I reported to, used to quote the firewall numbers to management in order to wrangle a better budget.
“Last month, the security team stopped 65 million attacks”

This is a stupid idea, those are numbers you cannot influence

 

[equationgirl]

This is a stupid idea, those are numbers you cannot influence

Sounds good to people who don't have a good grounding in cyber security though.

 

[two sheds]

better than letting them through though

 

[alex_]

better than letting them through though

The vast majority of these aren’t “attacks” they are scans, scaring the board with them and asking for money - you cannot use the money to reduce the “attacks”, because you cannot influence the bad people scanning you.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

No. But he figured he could influence the clueless board. And it worked.

 

[ska invita]

Four arrests, everyone under twenty

Four arrested over cyber-attacks on M&S, Co-op and Harrods

Four arrested on suspicion of breaching Computer Misuse Act, blackmail, money laundering and joining activities of organised crime

www.theguardian.com

And from the Midlands

 

[weltweit]

Heathrow and other airports reportedly hit by technical glitches delaying check in and causing cancellations.

This comes on top of JLR ransomware incident which has halted production and the supply chain.

 

[weltweit]

Heathrow cyber-attack: Delays after airport check-in system hit

Travellers report multi-hour waits for some airlines as disruption also hits Brussels and Berlin.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Dogsauce]

I wonder if there’s an environmental protest element to this, given these latest two targets? Though I suspect it’s just cunts as usual.

 

[weltweit]

I wonder if there’s an environmental protest element to this, given these latest two targets? Though I suspect it’s just cunts as usual.

I don't know, I suppose it is possible. In the JLR Supply chain situation I think I saw that supply chain workers were being encouraged to sign up to Universal Credit because the issue has gone on so long.

 

[Dogsauce]

I don't know, I suppose it is possible. In the JLR Supply chain situation I think I saw that supply chain workers were being encouraged to sign up to Universal Credit because the issue has gone on so long.

Tara aren’t poor and owned the company that looked after IT security too. Let them put their hand in their own pockets to support their workers FFS.

 

[Elpenor]

Wonder how many of these journeys were essential? Can’t get too sad about business types not getting to their meetings or posh Home Counties folk missing out on their trips to their second homes

 

[weltweit]

Wonder how many of these journeys were essential? Can’t get too sad about business types not getting to their meetings or posh Home Counties folk missing out on their trips to their second homes

I don't think it matters, if you have an airport it should be able to book in luggage, if it can't it will affect everyone looking to travel.

And in the case of JLR, having a JIT supply chain means there is no stock they could be working on, everything grinds to a halt. Enough to say that Jaguar Land Rover is making exclusive products for rich people, Range Rovers etc - but there are many organisations like JLR which are probably equally vulnerable.

 

[weltweit]

Tara aren’t poor and owned the company that looked after IT security too. Let them put their hand in their own pockets to support their workers FFS.

Yes, Tata then didn't protect their assets enough ..

 

[moochedit]

My employer is facing a ransomware attack this week. Not anyone mentioned in the news. Can't say anymore but it's bad

Reading these news stories with interest.

 

[ska invita]

Thread here

https://www.urban75.net/forums/thre...ibrary-the-guardian-and-uk-businesses.383331/

Will report post and ask for a merge

 

[Dogsauce]

My employer is facing a ransomware attack this week. Not anyone mentioned in the news. Can't say anymore but it's bad

Reading these news stories with interest.

A friend is a DBA at the HQ of a national builder’s merchants and they had an attack a few years ago due to some fuckwit opening an attachment, took months to get everything back properly, restoring all the databases. Had people working round the clock, I suspect the overtime bill cost them a fair amount alone. Kind of thing that can destroy a business. I’m surprised there isn’t greater international focus on tracking down and holding these groups to account, but some of them are state-backed and stuff like Crypto allows them to launder the proceeds easily.

I’d suggest punitive penalties for any company actually paying a ransom given this makes the attacks worthwhile.

 

[ska invita]

A friend is a DBA at the HQ of a national builder’s merchants and they had an attack a few years ago due to some fuckwit opening an attachment, took months to get everything back properly, restoring all the databases. Had people working round the clock, I suspect the overtime bill cost them a fair amount alone. Kind of thing that can destroy a business. I’m surprised there isn’t greater international focus on tracking down and holding these groups to account, but some of them are state-backed and stuff like Crypto allows them to launder the proceeds easily.

I’d suggest punitive penalties for any company actually paying a ransom given this makes the attacks worthwhile.

So far it's been predominantly British teenagers in the frame

 

[brogdale]

C4 News reported that the corporate victim of today's airports attack, Collins Aerospace secured a large NATO contract last week.

 

[PTK]

Call me a cave dweller, but it does astonish me that organisations link their vital services to the internet.

 

[Dystopiary]

This is all very reassuring isn't it.

 

[weltweit]

Reporters are saying JLR isn't likely to be able to restart production until sometime next month, and warns again that supply chain companies are in danger of going bankrupt in the meantime.