Kathmandu. A recent example of how dangerous the ransomware gang can be has come to light. The gang destroyed a British company that was more than 150 years old and left 700 employees unemployed in an instant. An event started with just one password. The extortion gang caught a “weak password” and shut it down the company forever.
Northamptonshire transport company KPN is one of thousands of British companies. Who have been victims of such cyber attacks. In recent months, big companies such as M&S, Co-Op and Harrods have been hit by cyber attacks. “The data of all its 6.5 million members has been stolen,” co-op CEO said last week. ’
With regard to KNP, it is believed that the hackers first guessed the employee’s password and then entered the company’s computer system. They then encrypted the company’s data and locked its internal systems. KNP director Paul Abbott says, “I didn’t tell employees that the company could collapse because of weak passwords. ’
Richard Hearn, CEO of the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), says, “What is necessary is that companies and organizations take steps to protect their systems. ’
Company drowned by a small mistake
KNP operated 500 trucks in 2023. Most of the trucks were operating under the ‘Knights of Old’ brand. The company said, “Our IT department follows industry standards. It also adopted an insurance policy against cyber attacks. However, a group of hackers called Akira entered the system and employees were unable to access any data they needed to run the business.
The hackers said they would have to pay a ransom to get the data back. “If you’re reading this, it means your company’s internal infrastructure has been completely or partially shut down. Keep tears and anger aside and try to have a positive conversation. ’
The hackers did not disclose the ransom amount. But experts dealing with such events estimate that it could be in millions of pounds. “It faces major attacks every day,” the NCSC said. ’
NCSC is a part of GCHQ. It is one of the uk’s three security services, along with mi5 and mi6. Sam (name changed) leads the NCSC team. Which deals with daily cyber attacks. “Hackers are not doing anything new,” he says.
Sam told Panorama that they were just looking for a weak link. “They are constantly looking for organizations that can be targeted. On what day can they be targeted and exploited? ‘-from BBC translated
