A Russia-linked hacking gang has claimed credit for the cyber attack that has crippled Royal Mail, threatening to publish stolen data from the company online.
The LockBit ransomware gang published an update on its official forum, warning it would publish “all available data” on Feb 9.
The Telegraph revealed in January that the LockBit gang, which is believed to have close links to Russia, was behind the attack.
The cyber attack shut down the postal service’s international export services, causing significant delays to overseas mail and leaving millions of parcels stuck in limbo.
The hack is understood to have shut down machines including those used to print custom labels. It has since developed ad-hoc alternative systems to get mail moving, but this remains subject to delays.
The day after the hack, the LockBit gang printed out ransom notes demanding payment in order to unlock the machines.
The LockBit gang largely communicates in Russian on hacking forums and has previously stated it benefits from the “hostile attitude of the West towards Russia” which allows it to “operate freely within the borders of the former Soviet countries”.
Simon Thompson, Royal Mail’s chief executive, previously said it was believed that no customer data had been stolen as part of the attack.
In its latest status update following the hack, Royal Mail said: “We continue to make progress in exporting an increasing number of items to a growing number of international destinations. We are using alternative solutions and systems, which are not affected by the recent cyber incident and have been successfully despatching parcels and letters which were in our network before the cyber incident and our services which have recently reopened.”
Royal Mail did not respond to a request for comment.
