One password is believed to have been all it took for a ransomware gang to destroy a 158-year-old company and put 700 people out of work. KNP – a Northamptonshire transport company – is just one of tens of thousands of UK businesses that have been hit by such attacks.
Big names such as M&S, Co-op and Harrods have all been attacked in recent months. The chief executive of Co-op confirmed last week that all 6.5 million of its members had had their data stolen. In KNP’s case, it’s thought the hackers managed to gain entry to the computer system by guessing an employee’s password, after which they encrypted the company’s data and locked its internal systems.
Read more…
Source: BBC News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- P&O Ferries data blunder as it sends out passengers’ personal details by text message
August 31, 2026
P&O Ferries was hit by a data breach after mistakenly sending out a full list of passengers’ personal details by text message this morning, we can reveal. A blunder saw the details of 432 passengers travelling on the 12pm P&O ferry from Calais to Dover sent as an attachment in a customer services text message. It is ...
- Millions of UK airport customer details accessed in major cyberattack
August 27, 2026
A cyber security breach targeting three major UK airports has led to the personal data of around 8.7 million customers being accessed, operator Manchester Airport Group (MAG) has confirmed. The group, which oversees Manchester Airport, London Stansted and East Midlands Airport, assured the public that “at no point has passenger safety or aviation security been compromised”, adding that no payment or banking details ...
- UK MoD says no data leaked to China via drone vulnerability
August 10, 2026
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that there is no evidence that military data was compromised after a cyber vulnerability was discovered in Royal Navy drones. The issue was identified during routine cybersecurity testing, the ministry said, adding that it continues to conduct security checks across its equipment and systems. Read more… Source: EUROACTIV Sign up for the ...
- Wetherspoons bars smart glasses from filming customers
August 10, 2026
Wetherspoons has stopped short of banning Meta-style smart glasses from its pubs, but told The Register that customers should switch off their cameras and refrain from filming. “Like many hospitality companies, Wetherspoon has CCTV cameras for security reasons, but their use is strictly controlled by data legislation,” a spokesperson said. “Apart from that, the general code that applies in ...
- Over 100,000 UK Police and staff have personal data leaked in attack on national database
August 4, 2026
The UK’s Police National Legal Database (PNLD) suffered a cyberattack recently, in which it allegedly lost sensitive data on more than 100,000 criminal justice professionals. In a short press release, PNLD confirmed the breach, saying it happened over a weekend. The threat actors, which were not named in the announcement, were said to have taken names, organizations, and ...
- Hackers who gained access to heart of London transport network jailed
July 16, 2026
The data of millions of commuters was stolen, Londoners were left out of pocket and 27,000 Transport for London staff were forced to reset their passwords. Over four days in 2024 a pair of teenage hackers had London’s transport network at their mercy. The hackers had burrowed into the heart of Transport for London’s IT systems and held ...