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.
-
How to implement a four-day week in techIn-depth More companies are switching to a four-day week as they look to balance employee well-being with productivity
-
Intelligence sharing: The boost for businessesIn-depth Intelligence sharing with peers is essential if critical sectors are to be protected
-
Hackers breached a 158 year old company by guessing an employee password – experts say it’s a ‘pertinent reminder’ of the devastating impact of cyber crimeNews A Panorama documentary exposed hackers' techniques and talked to the teams trying to tackle them
-
The ransomware boom shows no signs of letting up – and these groups are causing the most chaosNews Thousands of ransomware cases have already been posted on the dark web this year
-
Everything we know about the Ingram Micro cyber attack so farNews A cyber attack on Ingram Micro severely disrupted operations and has been claimed by the SafePay ransomware group.
-
A prolific ransomware group says it’s shutting down and giving out free decryption keys to victims – but cyber experts warn it's not exactly a 'gesture of goodwill'
News The Hunters International ransomware group is rebranding and switching tactics
-
Swiss government data published following supply chain attack – here’s what we know about the culpritsNews Radix, a non-profit organization in the health promotion sector, supplies a number of federal offices, whose data has apparently been accessed.
-
Ransomware victims are getting better at haggling with hackersNews While nearly half of companies paid a ransom to get their data back last year, victims are taking an increasingly hard line with hackers to strike fair deals.
-
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
