A UK car dealership has confirmed that it suffered from a serious ransomware attack that occurred last month and resulted in data theft and severe damage to some systems. The company is Holdcroft Motor Group, based in Trent. The organization confirmed the attack in an internal email, stating that the company was recovering from the hit and attempting to repair IT infrastructure. In addition, the company stated that the attack resulted in the loss of data from some internal storage areas. The company has conducted an internal investigation to understand the full scope of the attack. This investigation found that some of the compromised data may include the personal data of employees.
The National Cyber Security Centre and Information Commissioner’s Office have been alerted to the attack and called on to investigate further. Most of the company’s systems are up and running and the company found that the core dealer management system hosting customer data was not affected during the attack. Employees have been urged not to visit any personal sites on their work computers and to change their passwords to avoid the risk of further attacks such as phishing attempts.
