Russian group behind hacker attack on Swedish authorities and retailers
Several Swedish companies and local authorities were still struggling to get up and running on Monday afternoon after a huge ransomware attack, which appears to have been carried out by a Russian hacker group, knocked out IT supplier Tietoevery’s data centre.
Tietoevery has confirmed that hacker group Akira, which appears to be linked to Russia, is responsible for the attack.
"We can confirm that Akira is behind it," the data company's head of communications, Alexandra Kärnlund, told Svenska Dagbladet (SvD).
According to security expert Mattias Wåhlen, who the newspaper interviewed, there is no doubt that the group is tied to Russia.
"Almost all groups carrying out this type of attack are from Russia," he told SvD. "There are clear rules, the most important is that they are not allowed to attack targets in Russia, but only in the west."
The attack knocked out sales systems at Swedish cinemas and other retailers on Saturday, with cinema chain Filmstaden unable to sell cinema tickets, snacks, soft drinks or sweets as a result.
Several regional authorities and municipalities reported that they were also affected by the hacker attack, including Västerbotten, Bjuv, Vellinge and Uppsala.
Vellinge’s website was still down on Monday afternoon when The Local visited it, and the municipality’s head of IT told Swedish news agency TT that its “my pages” services were also down, which include for example customer accounts for water and sewage.
TODAY IN SWEDEN:
The Uppsala region in central Sweden, which is home to Uppsala University Hospital – one of Sweden’s biggest hospitals – said that its systems for patient hospital charts were affected.
“There’s no immediate risk to patients due to the IT disruption, but we have to use backup routines and manual processing in healthcare. This means that administrative procedures may take a little longer than they usually do,” Region Uppsala healthcare director Mikael Köhler said in a statement.
The statement said that the full extent of the attack was still being investigated and that the region’s crisis management had been “activated” to be ready in case the situation deteriorates.
It said it expected the problems to continue in the next few days.
Tietoevery said it had reported the attack to police and urged its customers to do the same.
“We are fully focused on this and are in regular contact with the customers and their IT departments. Our tech teams are working hard to restore the servers,” Tietoevery spokesperson Alexandra Kärnlund told TT on Monday, adding she couldn’t say when they would be back up.
Swedish discount chain Rusta, gardening chain Granngården, sportswear chain Stadium and state-owned alcohol monopoly Systembolaget were among the retailers affected by the attack.
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Tietoevery has confirmed that hacker group Akira, which appears to be linked to Russia, is responsible for the attack.
"We can confirm that Akira is behind it," the data company's head of communications, Alexandra Kärnlund, told Svenska Dagbladet (SvD).
According to security expert Mattias Wåhlen, who the newspaper interviewed, there is no doubt that the group is tied to Russia.
"Almost all groups carrying out this type of attack are from Russia," he told SvD. "There are clear rules, the most important is that they are not allowed to attack targets in Russia, but only in the west."
The attack knocked out sales systems at Swedish cinemas and other retailers on Saturday, with cinema chain Filmstaden unable to sell cinema tickets, snacks, soft drinks or sweets as a result.
Several regional authorities and municipalities reported that they were also affected by the hacker attack, including Västerbotten, Bjuv, Vellinge and Uppsala.
Vellinge’s website was still down on Monday afternoon when The Local visited it, and the municipality’s head of IT told Swedish news agency TT that its “my pages” services were also down, which include for example customer accounts for water and sewage.
TODAY IN SWEDEN:
The Uppsala region in central Sweden, which is home to Uppsala University Hospital – one of Sweden’s biggest hospitals – said that its systems for patient hospital charts were affected.
“There’s no immediate risk to patients due to the IT disruption, but we have to use backup routines and manual processing in healthcare. This means that administrative procedures may take a little longer than they usually do,” Region Uppsala healthcare director Mikael Köhler said in a statement.
The statement said that the full extent of the attack was still being investigated and that the region’s crisis management had been “activated” to be ready in case the situation deteriorates.
It said it expected the problems to continue in the next few days.
Tietoevery said it had reported the attack to police and urged its customers to do the same.
“We are fully focused on this and are in regular contact with the customers and their IT departments. Our tech teams are working hard to restore the servers,” Tietoevery spokesperson Alexandra Kärnlund told TT on Monday, adding she couldn’t say when they would be back up.
Swedish discount chain Rusta, gardening chain Granngården, sportswear chain Stadium and state-owned alcohol monopoly Systembolaget were among the retailers affected by the attack.
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