Coop Sweden announced on Saturday: “One of our subcontractors was the target of a digital attack, which is why our business is no longer viable.” The group hopes to get the problem under control quickly and to be able to reopen branches.
The supermarket chain did not provide any other details about the cyber attack. Coop Sweden has not disclosed the name of the subcontractor involved or how the company was hacked. However, the Swedish subsidiary of software company Visma announced that the issue is related to a major cyber attack on US IT company Kaseya on Friday. The computer networks of nearly 200 companies were “encrypted” during the hacker attack, according to cybersecurity consultancy Huntress Labs.
Ransomware attack on US company Trigger
After the attack, Kaseya asked her clients to shut down the VSA server immediately “so you can get more information from us.” With a VSA server, companies can control all their computers and printers from a single workstation.
According to its own information, Kaseya is a leading provider of IT and IT security for small and medium-sized businesses. A ransomware attack has reportedly been carried out on network software. In the case of ransomware attacks, criminals block or encrypt computer systems in order to extort money from users to release their data.
Recently, there have been many cyber attacks on American companies. In May, the US colonial oil pipeline and the US subsidiary of the world’s largest meat producer JBS fell victim to a ransomware cyber attack. Last year, hackers gained access to the systems of ministries, agencies and companies using software from the US IT company SolarWinds.
Cyber attack on Salzburg Milch
In Austria, a cyberattack on the Salzburg Milch dairy has caused quite a stir recently. The criminals seem to have changed all the passwords. All areas of the company were affected by the failure of the system. Immediately after the attack, internal and external specialists went around the clock to repair the damage and restore regular operations. As a result, parts of production can be started again the next day, but only in emergency mode.
The milk handler – the third largest in Austria – was only able to resume normal operations eight days after the attack. When asked if the money was flowing to the criminals, commissioner signing Florian Schwab said: “I can’t and can’t say anything” – more on this at salzburg.ORF.at.
According to Schwab, nothing is known about the identity of the cyber attackers, with whom there has been no contact for days. The responsible specialists of the state criminal police office in Salzburg will continue the investigation. According to Salzburg Milch, the exact amount of damage caused by a pirate attack can only be determined after it has been fully addressed.
