Royal Mail Returns to Operations After Experiencing Ransomware Attack from the Lockbit Gang

Royal Mail was hit by a ransomware attack. (photo: Twitter @royalmail)

JAKARTA – Royal Mail, one of the world's largest postal and parcel companies, said it was still working with external experts, security authorities and regulators to mitigate the impact of the cyberattack incident that hit them last week.

The Telegraph newspaper reported last week that Lockbit, a ransomware group that some cybersecurity experts say has members in Russia, was behind the incident. The Royal Mail declined to comment on the report.

Britain's Royal Mail announced on Wednesday 18 January that it had begun moving limited volumes of export parcels while testing an "operational solution", after a cyber incident that severely disrupted its international export services last week.

The postal company, which is part of International Distributions Services Plc, said it had also resumed mail delivery and from 1900 GMT customers could start sending international export mail to its network.

However, it said that while testing the solution, it kept asking customers not to send new export packages. Import operations and domestic services remain unaffected.

"Our initial focus will be on cleaning up mail that has been processed and is waiting to be dispatched," Royal Mail said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

The number of ransomware incidents - in which hackers encrypt victims' data with software and offer them keys in exchange for money - has increased markedly in recent years.