Swedish supermarket chain Coop has closed all its stores in the country due to a cyber attack. There are about 800 stores. The attack may be related to the international ransomware attack that also affected 200 American companies.
Coop has a market share of 20 percent in the Swedish supermarket sector and an annual turnover of approximately 1.5 billion euros. The POS systems have been paralyzed by the cyber attack, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports. A solution has been worked on all night, but without success.
The chain does not assume that it is the direct target of the cyber attack, according to the Swedish news agency TT. It may be part of the international ransomware attack. Presumably, that attack started at Kaseya, a company that supplies IT management software. According to security firm Huntress, it appears that the Russian-affiliated REvil group is behind the attack.
The attackers may have penetrated the systems by deploying a fraudulent update to VSA, a program used for remote management. Sun supply chainattack was previously used to break into breken US government agencies.
The ransomware paralyzes an organization’s computer system, which is then instructed to transfer “ransom” to the hackers before releasing files and systems.
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