Sweden’s Riksbank files a police report after its IT systems fell due to a ransomware attack on Tietoevry
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Following a recent ransomware attack conducted against a software company known as Tietoevry, Swedish central bank Riksbank had its own IT systems knocked out. The bank has since filed a police report, bringing the matter to light.
Sweden’s central bank has filed a police report after some of its IT systems were rendered inaccessible by a ransomware attack that has crippled customers of Finnish software company Tietoevry Oyj since last weekend. The Riksbank’s human resources and payroll systems were still…
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Tietoevry clients’ services were disrupted in light of the recent hack
According to reports, Riksbank has lost its human resources and payroll systems, both of which have been inaccessible since the hackers conducted an attack on the data center owned by Tietoevry in Sweden. The attack itself took place almost a week ago, but the consequences are still being felt — not only for the targeted firm but for its clients as well, such as Riksbank itself.
The attack, which was carried out by the Akira ransomware gang, affected several of the company’s clients beyond the bank. Tietoevry addressed the matter in an update posted last Thursday.
At the time, the bank said that the customer-specific situation varies greatly, with some being affected much more than others. “Overall the customer-specific situations vary greatly, for example in terms of the solutions in question, customer-specific workloads and the volume and complexity of related data restoration.”
However, it also added that there was a restricted number of customer situations that would require additional restoration actions. These are currently being planned in collaboration with the customers themselves. Given the complexity of the situation, it will likely take a longer period for everything to get back to normal and for the impact of the attack to dissipate.
The fact that even the central bank was strongly affected by a ransomware attack will surely bring additional attention to the matter.
The attack took place in the early hours of Saturday, and while the firm was able to quickly isolate the affected unit, it will take some time to restore its service and resolve all the issues of its customers who were affected.
Ransomware attacks on the rise
As mentioned, the Swedish central bank was not the only one affected. Filmstaden, a service that allows movie-goers to buy tickets online was also impacted, and several universities and hospitals have had their systems disrupted in the incident.
Security experts have also noted that ransomware attacks have been on the rise in recent months. Warnings came from multiple sources, and even the securities lending platform EquiLend warned its customers that the service might go down for a while after being hit by one such attack.
Online criminals were targeting any high-value institution, from Australian ports to Las Vegas casinos. While the attacks were the result of different groups’ involvement, Akira, which targeted Tietoevry, has been around since March of 2023, and has since become a formidable ransomware threat, as described by Morgan Demboski of the cybersecurity firm Sophos.
Demboski warned last year that the group was targeting a wide range of organizations around the world, including targets in Europe, Australia, and North America. Hundreds of victims were affected by their activities, and Tietoevry and Riksbank are only the latest examples.
