British supermarket distributor suffered ransomware attack

Issuers of major UK supermarkets said cyber hackers ransomed it.

Logistics company Peter Green Chill said it offers supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury and Aldi, but it is relatively small compared to the larger UK food distributors.

It told the BBC's wake-up currency customers are “receiving regular updates” including “workarounds” on how to continue delivering, and one of the customers said thousands of products could be wasted.

A major cyber attack on trademarks and Spencer and co-ops has been larger recently, but the attacks highlighted the challenges facing smaller logistics companies.

Peter Green said in an email sent Thursday that Peter Green said it was the victim of a ransomware attack.

A ransomware attack is when a hacker encrypts the victim's data and locks it outside the computer system, requiring payment to return controls.

The email said that although any orders prepared on Wednesday will be sent, no orders will be processed on Thursday.

Peter Green confirmed to the BBC that the cyber attack took place Wednesday night, but it said it could not be discussed further.

“During this incident, the transportation activities of the business have not been affected,” said Tom Binks, its managing director.

One of Peter Green customers of Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, founder of Black Farmer, said he used Peter Green's cold chili peppers “to have ten meat products with tray value.”

He said that if the products do not arrive at the retailer in time, they must be “thrown into the trash.”

Ten trays are “thousands of bags of products sitting there, clocks ticking,” he said. “No information. Everything on the chain has to stop and then thousands of pounds of product are wasted.”

Peter Green Chill is a company located near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, which mainly delivers refrigerated food, mainly to regional stores.

There are larger distributors of refrigerated food in the UK – such as Lineage, GXO and Culina.

However, Phil Pluck, CEO of the Cold Chain Federation, said the warehousing, food storage and distribution sectors were “continuously under attack.”

He said a few years ago, there were some cyber and ransomware attacks, but in the last year, it had “significant growth.”

He said about half of the food consumed in the UK “experienced the cold chain field”, so hackers “know how crucial it is to “know food on supermarket shelves”.

He added, “It’s a very good leverage to put pressure on our companies to actually pay for ransomware.”

Mr. Prok said he knew at least ten attacks on member companies, but the company liked to keep attacking “under radar.”

He said cyber attacks are “large-money coverage” in any area because once you are attacked, you lose control of the company through attacks and mitigation from police and insurance companies.

The cooperatives nearly avoid being locked in their systems when they attacked, which exposed customer data and resulted in short supply of inventory.

A ransomware team claimed responsibility for the attack on M&S, which saw customer data stolen and empty shelves. The retailer itself said it suffered a cyberattack.