Royal Mail is continuing to ask customers to refrain from posting items to overseas destinations while it investigates a cyber attack. The company said it was experiencing “severe disruption” to its international export services and is temporarily unable to dispatch items overseas.
But it did not provide any updates on Monday on when the incident is likely to be resolved and shipping would resume. It is believed to have already left more than half a million letters and parcels stuck in limbo, according to reports late last week.
The attack is suspected to have come from a Russian-linked ransomware gang called Lockbit, the Telegraph first reported. A Royal Mail distribution centre in Northern Ireland revealed its printers began “spurting” out copies of a ransom note on Tuesday, saying “your data are stolen and encrypted.”
Lockbit, which is believed to have close links to Russia, was also behind a major hack of car dealership Pendragon last year, which refused to pay a ransom payment of 60 million dollars. Royal Mail would not comment on the hacking reports, but said it had launched an investigation into the incident and had reported it to its regulators and security authorities. Royal Mail said on Monday that it wants to avoid a build-up of items to be sent overseas sitting in its sorting offices.
It said in a statement: “To support faster recovery when our service is restored and to prevent a build-up of export items in our network, we’re asking customers not to post international items until further notice. Items that have already been despatched may be subject to delays.”
The company has been hit by disruption in recent months, with postal workers staging walkouts in December in a long-running dispute over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions. It has caused havoc for businesses who rely on the delivery services, with major retailers such as Moonpig, Card Factory and Asos partially blaming the strikes for a drop in sales towards the end of last year.
Royal Mail has also suffered heavy losses from the crippling industrial action. In November, it said that three days of strikes in the first half of the year had cost it around £70 million, while a further five days in October cost it another £30 million. More strike days in November and December, including across the crucial Black Friday discounted shopping days, as well as the temporary suspension of international deliveries, are likely to have had a big hit on the loss-making delivery firm.
The company recently rubbished reports that it was planning to sack thousands of workers in order to save money, despite targeting £350 million in cost efficiencies. Instead, it confirmed it would be reducing 10,000 full-time equivalent roles, which would be achieved through “natural attrition, reducing temporary workers, and a generous voluntary redundancy scheme which has been oversubscribed”.
