{"id":312,"date":"2023-01-11T18:07:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T18:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/royal-mail-cyber-incident-hits-overseas-post\/"},"modified":"2023-01-11T18:07:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T18:07:52","slug":"royal-mail-cyber-incident-hits-overseas-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/royal-mail-cyber-incident-hits-overseas-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Mail ‘cyber-incident’ hits overseas post"},"content":{"rendered":"

Royal Mail ‘cyber-incident’ hits overseas post<\/p>\n

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By Tom Espiner<\/div>\n
Business reporter, BBC News<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Royal Mail says it is unable to send letters and parcels overseas following a “cyber-incident”. <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The delivery firm is telling customers to stop sending items overseas while it tries to resolve the issue. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Royal Mail said there were also minor delays to post coming into the UK, but domestic deliveries are unaffected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It apologised and said its teams were “working around the clock to resolve this disruption” and would update customers when it had more information. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Royal Mail is understood to be calling it a “cyber-incident” rather than a cyber attack because it does not know what has caused the problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Its computerised systems for sending letters and parcels abroad had been “severely disrupted”, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We immediately launched an investigation into the [cyber] incident and we are working with external experts,”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of the UK’s cyber intelligence agency GCHQ, is involved in trying to work out what has happened, alongside the National Crime Agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Regulators have also been told of the incident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Details are often scarce when it comes to cyber incidents, but Royal Mail is being especially vague about what is happening inside its international mail centres.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The company has called in the National Cyber Security Centre and the Information Commissioners Office, which are the bodies you’d usually call if there’s a cyber attack – the NCSC for help, and the ICO because you have to inform them of any potential data theft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But Royal Mail has also called the National Crime Agency, which suggests the incident might have a different angle to it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They are also being careful not to call it a cyber-attack, which opens up the possibility that it might be a large scale technical glitch, or even some sort of sabotage to the system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Either way it seems to be a major incident with far-reaching effects as the backlog of packages builds up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There have been a number of high-profile cyber-security incidents in recent weeks in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Twitter accounts of two Cabinet ministers have been hacked, and the Guardian newspaper was hit with a suspected ransomware attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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