British postal company Royal Mail resumes mail traffic after a cyber attack

Britain’s Royal Mail has resumed delivering international letters and parcels, the company said on Twitter. Due to a cyberattack, the systems for international mail traffic have been down since January 11th.

It is not clear if the “cyber incident”, as Royal Mail calls it, has been resolved. In a press release, the postal company said it uses “alternative solutions and systems” to send international mail. Royal Mail was able to process international mail sent to the UK normally. Local mail traffic was also not disrupted.

According to the BBC, the cyberattack was the work of Russian criminals. A ransom would have been demanded to release the systems again. Although no specific amounts were mentioned, the broadcaster expected the number to be in the millions.

Royal Mail falls under England’s so-called Critical National Infrastructure and is crucial to the British economy, according to the BBC. An insider told the broadcaster earlier that the attack was done using so-called hostage software, called Lockbit. This program would have shut down the system used to send shipments abroad.