The devastation after a ransomware attack on global logistics company Toll Group demonstrates the impact a simple ransomware attack can have on operations.
The last thing any shipping company wants to tell its customers is that deliveries will be suspended indefinitely. But, that’s exactly what Australian logistics company Toll Group needed to communicate to some of their customers in the wake of last week’s ransomware attack.
In response to quickly identifying the ransomware attack, Toll chose to immediately isolate and shut down infected systems which impacts several customer-facing applications. Employing over 40,000 people worldwide, the loss of any application places a burden on staff to figure out how to maintain operations. In Toll’s case, according to one notification, reverting back to manual processes in some cases was necessary.
Ransomware today is about disrupting operations – encrypting of data is only the means to do so. In Toll’s case, the attack was a success. From the post-attack announcements made on their website, it sounds like they implemented pre-made plans to remediate the situation as quickly as possible, with no mention of whether ransom demands were met.
Toll was hit by the MailTo variant of ransomware, part of the KoKo ransomware family. With phishing typically used as the attack vector, it’s likely that a Toll employee fell for a phishing scam and clicked on a malicious attachment. Users that have been educated with Security Awareness Training are better able to avoid becoming the victim of phishing scams by being taught to be generally more aware of the prevalence and methods of such cyberattacks.
As of the writing this article, Toll is still working through their remediation steps and working to fulfill customer needs as quickly as possible.
