This is hardly the type of advertising you’d expect to see around businesses in your community as summer heats up and Americans begin the slow process of venturing out into a post-COVID consumer environment. Although the highly publicized ransomware cyber attack against Colonial Pipeline in May 2021 hit most of our feeds, including mine, I still did not feel like this type of cyber attack would affect the types of smaller scale consumer activities that I depend on.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I came face to face with such an attack on Friday July 2nd while in the midst of routine activities. I visited a local bathroom showplace to order a replacement part for a warranted item that required proof of purchase. Since my part was old and I’d lost the proof of purchase, I went in person to the store to retrieve my order details. The staff were exceedingly helpful and interested in repairing the existing part, and after some discussion, I finally pressed for receipt of the paperwork showing my earlier purchase. Very regretfully, the staff informed me they were unable to assist me because their showroom had been hit that day by a ransomware cyber attack that had frozen all their accounts. I found this a little hard to believe since I was in a local showroom for bathroom parts, and I had been accustomed to viewing ransomware attacks as targeted towards larger corporations with more funds for potential ransom payments. However, Friday’s attack infected thousands of victims across 17 countries, according to CBS news, and the impact of this attack on the showroom was later confirmed when I called the national chain to request my part without the proof of purchase. Sales associates at the national center were unable to verify proofs of purchase but felt compelled to honor their warranty information regardless and promptly dispatched my new part. For a prolonged service outage, inability to verify business accounts could certainly result in a costly impact to retailers.
Friday’s attack came largely through firms that are remotely serving IT infrastructure for the affected customers, according to cybersecurity researchers. This attack currently holds the record for the largest single ransomware attack on record, with initial details pointing – again – to Russian-linked actors. Ransom demands on Friday reached upwards of $5 million or $70 million in cryptocurrency. Coming hard on the heels of the Colonial Pipeline attack in May, and with larger and larger demands in their cross-hairs, ransomware attacks look set to become another major disrupter for American retail just as businesses begin the process of rebounding from COVID-related revenue losses. Friday’s attack highlights an uncomfortable truth – namely, that smaller local businesses unaccustomed to considering themselves threats for identity theft, hacking, or other cyber-related crimes are in fact potentially valuable sources of revenue for globally dispersed hacking gangs. It is no longer the larger Fortune-500 firms who need to worry about cyber-security, and Friday’s events demonstrate that ransomware attacks will be coming soon to a retailer near you.
MACH37, Virginia’s original cyber security startup accelerator, has knowledge for companies of all sizes and is currently piloting companies specializing in scaling cyber security solutions across a range of corporate clients. This includes clients who may previously have doubted their need for cyber protection. It is too late to acquire cyber security protection when your business is shut down, and this proactive approach to secure clients from disruptive attacks is at the center of what we do every day.