Supplier to Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Aldi ‘held to ransom’ in cyber attack
A distributor to some of the biggest supermarkets in the UK was held to ransom by cyber hackers.
Peter Green Chilled which supplies Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi has hit by the incident last week.
The cyber attack happened on Wednesday evening, and in an email sent last Thursday, seen by the BBC, the logistics firm confirmed the news.
No orders would be processed on Thursday, although any order prepared on Wednesday would be sent, it said.
Managing director Tom Binks said: ‘The transport activities of the business have continued unaffected throughout this incident.’
Mr Emmanuel-Jones is one supplier affected and he said he had ‘something like ten pallets worth of meat products’ with Peter Green Chilled.
He said they will be ‘thrown in the bin’ if products are not delivered to retailers.
It comes after other major supermarkets like M&S and Co-op were hit by major cyber attacks.
What happens when cyber attackers target suppliers?
Cyber and supply chain expert, Tim Grieveson, said: ‘Cyberattacks on the supply chain are not just about digital data breaches. They are disrupting the physical flow of goods as we have seen in the case of M&S, Co-op and now for Peter Green Chilled.
‘When hackers target logistics systems or warehouse operations, even a short delay can be catastrophic, especially for perishable goods such as fresh produce or pharmaceuticals.
‘A ransomware attack that halts refrigeration or reroutes deliveries can result in tons of spoiled inventory, lost revenue, and empty shelves.
‘It’s not just an online threat but a tangible supply and food security issue.’
M&S hackers managed to gain access through a third party who had access to the systems.
The cyber attack happened in April and caused millions of pounds of lost sales for M&S, with online orders paused for more than three weeks.
Co-op narrowly avoided being locked out of its computer systems because of a cyber attack.
Hackers broke into the supermarket’s IT network but the supermarket said it took ‘steps to keep systems safe’ and that there was ‘no evidence that customer data was compromised’.
But it later admitted it was much worse than first reported and that a huge sample of customer data was shared by the hackers.
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