Ransomware attacks continue to cripple different businesses, one more victim has now become apparent. Recently, a telemarketing firm The Heritage Company has suffered a ransomware attack that temporarily collapsed the whole business.
The Heritage Company Faced Ransomware Attack
UK-based telemarketing firm The Heritage Company suffered a ransomware attack. The firm disclosed the cyber attack on the eve of Christmas as their entire business went down.
As reported by KATV, the agency employing over 300 people suddenly disclosed the news of closure following the security incident. The company CEO Sandra Franecke shared details about the ransomware attack in a message to the staff via Facebook.
Approximately two months ago our Heritage servers were attacked by malicious software that basically “held us hostage for ransom”.
She further elaborated that they had to pay the ransom to recover their data.
We were forced to pay the crooks to get the “key” just to get our systems back up and running. Since then, IT has been doing everything they can to bring all our systems back up, but they still have quite a long way to go.
However, the technical details about how this incident could have occurred remain undisclosed.
Company Faces Temporary Closure
Following the incident, the company faced severe financial losses due to which they had to announce temporary closure. Though, the decision came as a surprise (a bad one) for the staff.
The ONLY option we had at this time was to close the doors completely or suspend our services until we can regroup and reorganize and get our systems running again.
The company CEO, in her message, further elaborated to keep the employees updated about the progress.
On January 2nd, there will be a message left on the weather line. That message will give you updated information on the restructuring of the company and whether or not we’ve made progress on our system.
While she’s hoping to have the business running back soon, for now, the employees are left devastated with the sudden decision.
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