Guardian Confirms Hit with Ransomware Attack

The Cyber Attack that disrupted Guardian’s internal network this past December was in fact a Ransomware attack.  It was responsible for affecting the newspaper’s financial system, as well as the Wi-Fi connections in some of their buildings.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) belonging to the UK staff was also breached, however none of the information is known to be leaked to the public.  Any PII belonging to their readers, as well as US and Australian staffers of the newspaper, was not affected. PII is any sensitive information that could expose a person’s identity.

It is believed that the attack was started by a phishing attempt, which is the most common start to a breach.  The fake phishing email attempts to trick the user into opening a malicious link or file, which will then allow the ransomware to corrupt the organization’s network and sensitive data.

Due to the Cyber Attack, Guardian’s office has been shut down and all employees have been ordered to work remotely.  They are hoping to open the office back up in February.

In order to avoid attacks like this one, it’s important to train your staff to be aware of what to look for in phishing attack attempts.  One of the services CATS Technology Solutions Group provides is working with different business’s staff to inform and train them on different Cyber-attacks and how to prevent them.

Categorised in: IT Threat