IT services giant Sopra Steria has announced that last month’s cyber attack on its systems is likely to cost the company up to €50 million.
In an update published on its website, the NHS supplier admitted that the ransomware attack would negatively impact its gross operating margin by between €40 million (£35.6m) and €50 million (£44.5m).
The French company also revealed that its insurance coverage for cyber risks totals €30 million (£26.7m). IT Pro contacted its representatives about the details of the insurance coverage but is yet to hear back from the company.
Sopra Steria stated that the large costs of the cyber attack, a new variant of the infamous Ryuk ransomware, can be attributed to “the remediation and differing levels of unavailability of the various systems since 21 October”, the day when the incident was detected.
However, the IT services giant added that “sales activity for the fourth quarter should not be significantly affected by this event”.
“For financial year 2020, Sopra Steria expects to see negative organic revenue growth of between 4.5% and 5.0% (previously “between -2% and -4%”), an operating margin on business activity of around 6.5% (previously “between 6% and 7%”), and free cash flow of between €50 million and €100 million (previously “between €80m and €120m”),” it said.
Ryuk is a popular strain of malware which last month was reported to be targeting some 20 organisations a week as well as forcing a number of US hospitals offline. It is believed to have compromised Sopra Steria's Active Directory infrastructure and encrypted portions of the company's network.
However, according to the company, the attack was “rapidly blocked thanks to in-house IT and cyber security teams”.
“The measures implemented immediately made it possible to contain the virus to only a limited part of the Group’s infrastructure and to protect its customers and partners,” it added.
Sopra Steria also confirmed that the incident had not caused any further breach of data, saying that it had not identified “any leaked data or damage caused to its customers’ information systems”.
Since the cyber attack, the company has managed to restore access to its workstations, R&D and production servers, in-house tools and applications, as well as customer connections.
-
HPE just announced huge changes to its channel programsNews HPE has announced the launch of HPE Partner Ready Vantage, a new unified channel program designed to help partners unlock new growth opportunities.
-
Customer service workers were first on the AI chopping block, but now enterprises are backtrackingNews While businesses have been keen on replacing customer service workers with AI, adoption difficulties mean many are now backtracking on plans.
-
LockBit data dump reveals a treasure trove of intel on the notorious hacker groupNews An analysis of May's SQL database dump shows how much LockBit was really making
-
‘I take pleasure in thinking I can rid society of at least some of them’: A cyber vigilante is dumping information on notorious ransomware criminals – and security experts say police will be keeping close tabsNews An anonymous whistleblower has released large amounts of data allegedly linked to the ransomware gangs
-
It's been a bad week for ransomware operatorsNews A host of ransomware strains have been neutralized, servers seized, and key players indicted
-
Everything we know about the Peter Green Chilled cyber attackNews A ransomware attack on the chilled food distributor highlights the supply chain risks within the retail sector
-
Scattered Spider: Who are the alleged hackers behind the M&S cyber attack?News The Scattered Spider group has been highly active in recent years
-
Ransomware attacks are rising — but quiet payouts could mean there's more than actually reported
News Ransomware attacks continue to climb, but they may be even higher than official figures show as companies choose to quietly pay to make such incidents go away.
-
Cleo attack victim list grows as Hertz confirms customer data stolen – and security experts say it won't be the lastNews Hertz has confirmed it suffered a data breach as a result of the Cleo zero-day vulnerability in late 2024, with the car rental giant warning that customer data was stolen.
-
‘Phishing kits are a force multiplier': Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25 – and experts warn it’s lowering the barrier of entry for amateur hackersNews Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
