The ransomware attacks impacting M&S, Co-op and Harrods must feel near-apocalyptic for those working there, but in information security circles they represent just another day, another major cyber incident.
That’s the impression given by the cybersecurity podcasts to have covered the attacks – which in the words of Risky Business host Patrick Gray “just keep on trucking” – this week.
M&S is a “complete smouldering wreck of a company at the moment” Gray noted, adding Co-op too is seeing “big dramas”. Co-host Adam Boileau groaned at media reports M&S didn’t have an incident response plan in place. “You feel sympathy for them – but being an organisation these days and not being ready for this kind of thing? It’s not like ransomware is brand new.”
An email to the show from an anonymous M&S insider revealed teams were “doing real hand-to-hand battles” to extract the hackers, with the situation “about as bad as it gets”.
Smashing Security hosts Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault covered the attacks too, with some begrudging admiration for M&S hacker group Scattered Spider and its “quite clever” approach of calling helpdesks posing as staff to request new passwords.
“People like to be helpful, don’t they?” Cluley said. The pair noted how difficult the cyber criminals will be to track down, given they are geographically spread and might not know one another beyond an online handle.
The segment ended with a game of “metal or malware”. As Cluley said: “Sometimes it’s hard to know: is it a ransomware gang or is it some Eurovision death metal group?”
Either way, they’ll rock your world.
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