Popular timekeeping/payroll company Ultimate Kronos Group, Kronos for short, has been hit by a Ransomware attack. The Kronos team is working quickly to rectify the situation, though it may take a few weeks to return to normal.
According to a now removed blog post on their website, Kronos is “working with leading cyber security experts to assess and resolve the situation, and have notified the authorities.” The attack targeted the Kronos Private Cloud. Those systems are currently unavailable.
Read the full statement below:
Kronos is used by half of Fortune 1000 companies and tens of thousands of companies, making this attack one of the biggest this year. In May of 2021, the Colonial Pipeline fell victim to a devastating cyber attack that caused a state of emergency to be declared. Ultimately, the company had to pay 75 Bitcoin, about $4.4 million. A portion of that money was recovered by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Businesses affected may have to manually record information for the time being, which could result in loss for employees. Universal Orlando in Florida reported on their employee website that the application “will have intermittent availability due to planned vendor maintenance” on Monday night.
The attack comes just days after the vulnerability of Log4j was announced. While there is no current indication that the two are connected, the investigation is ongoing.
Ransomware attacks are a dangerous threat to all businesses. Criminals gain access and lock companies’ files, notify the companies of their hold on the data, and then demand cryptocurrency in exchange for unlocking their data. As cryptocurrency transactions are untraceable, it is incredibly difficult to track down the hackers.
To ensure that your data is safe, it is best to always keep good password hygiene, beware of email phishing, keep updated antivirus software on all machines, and have a backup system in place.
For help ensuring your data is safe, please reach out to us. We are always here to protect you and safeguard your business’ future.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Pipeline_ransomware_attack
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/12/14/kronos-ransomware-attack-payrolls/6505923001/