The Dutch chain has stores all over the world and employs about 370,000 employees. Norwegian stores were not affected by the attack, Norgesgruppen digi.no reported.
Some UK stores can reopen after switching to cash. James Hall & Co. is responsible for operating the information technology in the Company’s English language stores. According to the operating resource, the ransomware attack affected the IT systems of the store chain.
Payment systems are down
– We are working to resolve this incident as soon as possible, says a spokesperson for the operator supplier Sky News.
The attack affected the payment and logistics systems of chain stores.
The operating provider does not want to comment on whether it will pay attackers to unlock systems.
We apologize for the problems this creates for customers of closed spar stores, the company continues.
separate IT system
NSA says it is aware of the incident, and is working with Spar and its operational resource to get an overview of the incident.
Norgesgruppen’s Director of Communications Kine Søyland told digi.no that their Norwegian stores were not affected by the problems. It says Spar is operated by the Norwegian group under a trademark license, and that the companies have no connection between the computer systems.
In Norway, Spar has its own IT systems connected to Norgesgruppen, she explains.
easy to protect
– Spar is a chain concept that exists all over the world. She says we have completely separate IT systems, and we are not affected by these issues in any way.
Ransomware protection is not advanced and does not require special security measures.
According to security expert Chris Collina, NSM Basic Principles for ICT Security Keep most companies safe against this type of attack.
In short, it keeps your systems up to date with the latest security updates, doesn’t give admin rights to end users, just let authorized software run and upgrade software and hardware regularly.
Put a couple of factors together, Colina said when we last spoke to him, you’re well on your way.
pays ransom
more and more international Enterprises in the end push the attackers.
In a survey conducted by NTT Security It turns out that even four out of ten senior Norwegian managers would rather pay a ransom to hackers than invest money in their own security.
The reason must be that it is more profitable from a financial point of view.
This trend has been repeated in several surveys conducted by the security company in recent years.
– That’s very worrying. This suggests that Norwegian leaders are becoming aware of ways out of the situation rather than using energy to prevent them from being attacked, NTT Security Officer Lisbeth Borissen said when the report was published.
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