Ransomware halted physical delivery: Royal Mail hit by LockBit
In January, Royal Mail discovered a cyberattack which halted their international shipping services due to what they referred to as, “severe service disruption.” It later surfaced that the threat group responsible for the attack was LockBit, who announced their role in a post published on a Russian-speaking hacking site. Royal Mail were able to re-establish most of their international shipping services by the 3rd of February on Twitter, and declared that they were fully operational on the 21st of February 2023. On the 23rd of February, LockBit leaked 44GB of data stolen from Royal Mail, as they refused to pay the £66 million ransom due to it being ‘an absurd amount of money.’ The leaked data included files relating to “various parts of Royal Mail’s business…technical information, contracts with third- party suppliers, human resource and staff disciplinary records, details of salaries and overtime payments, and even one staff member’s Covid-19 vaccination records.”
The ransom has since lowered to £33m, but Royal Mail have shown no signs of giving in to the threat groups demands.
This is an excellent example of the real-world implications of cybercrime, notably where operational disruption is concerned, with the impact extending beyond the victim itself. UK residents were forced to use alternative shipping solutions for their international exports, also highlighting the impact on customer confidence .
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