UK Cyber-Crime Agencies Investigating Suspected Royal Mail Attack

Royal Mail has said it is working with Britain's cyber-security agencies to resolve an incident that has halted overseas postal and parcel deliveries.
The UK business warned Wednesday that people should hold off on posting export items after a cyber incident. A spokesman said Thursday that the situation has yet to be resolved and that the business is still unable to dispatch to international locations.
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Royal Mail has issued a statement saying that its teams are working around the clock to resolve a current disruption. The company says it will provide updates to customers as soon as more information is available. An investigation has been launched into the incident, and Royal Mail is working with external experts.
The National Cyber Security Centre in Britain has said that it is working with Royal Mail and the National Crime Agency to understand the full extent of the impact of the recent cyber attack. The Centre helps companies to avoid such attacks and to minimise the damage caused if they do occur.
Royal Mail has warned that some customers may experience delays to items already shipped, due to an issue with software that creates digital dockets for export deliveries.
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The domestic business operations are not affected. The import arm is continuing to offer a full service, but there may be some minor delays.
There are only slight delays at Parcelforce, Royal Mail's express courier division, which includes an international service.
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Paul Holland, CEO of Beyond Encryption, said the immediate impact of the Royal Mail outage suggests that the company has suffered a major attack on its core systems.
He said that it is difficult to predict how quickly the situation will be resolved, but that there is a likelihood of significant long-term effects.
Royal Mail is facing a wave of industrial action over pay for delivery and sorting-office staff as higher inflation increases living costs. The cyber incident comes at a time when the company is already under pressure.
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Workers are resisting plans to cut jobs and change delivery times to late afternoon and evening, as well as increasing weekend deliveries. This is in order to better address the burgeoning market for next-day parcel deliveries, which has been growing due to the boom in online purchasing.
ISD's stock was mostly unchanged in London trading Thursday, after falling 0.8% the day before.