Royal Mail’s export service hit with major cyber incident and is experiencing ‘severe disruption’
Royal Mail is experiencing “severe service disruption” to its international export services following a cyber incident, the company has announced.
A statement said it was temporarily unable to despatch export items including letters and parcels to overseas destinations.
Royal Mail said: “We have asked customers temporarily to stop submitting any export items into the network while we work hard to resolve the issue.
“Some customers may experience delay or disruption to items already shipped for export.
“Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays.
“Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this disruption and we will update customers as soon as we have more information.
“We immediately launched an investigation into the incident and we are working with external experts.
“We have reported the incident to our regulators and the relevant security authorities.
“We would like to sincerely apologise to impacted customers for any disruption this incident may be causing.”
According to an analysts there may be additional criminal intent behind the attack.
“National Cyber Security Centre and the Information Commissioners Office, which are the bodies you’d usually call if there’s a cyber attack – the NCSC for help, and the ICO because you have to inform them of any potential data theft. But Royal Mail has also called the National Crime Agency, which suggests the incident might have a different angle to it,” said Joe Tiddy, BBC Cyber reporter.
Terry Greer-King , Vice President EMEA & APJ of SonicWall a cybersecurity frim, linked this cyber incident to declining cyber safety in the UK.
Greer-King told City Am :
““The cyber incident at the Royal Mail shows that the public sector, like all other industries, is still vulnerable to mass cyber attack. As legacy IT concerns become more apart across the UK’s public sector, the state of its cybersecurity is still a main topic that must be addressed, especially after 2021 brought a 94% increase in malware on the global government sector.”
” As a service that people and businesses alike depend on day-to-day, ensuring its digital infrastructure remains secure must be a top priority. To truly safeguard national public-sector cybersecurity, the government must take real concerted action now,” he added.
The incident is the latest in a series of high profile cyber incidents in the UK, following the hacking of two Cabinet Minster’s Twitter accounts and a reported ransomware attack at The Guardian Newspaper.
Press Association – Alan Jones