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The LockBit ransomware group has claimed the attack on a wholesale distributor of officer products, dubbed Essendant. Based on reports, the incident has resulted in the company’s operations disruption.
The cybersecurity attack prevented some of the firm’s business transactions, such as fulfilling online orders, affecting the company’s customers and suppliers. Essendant ordered its freight carriers to postpone their pick-up schedules until further notice.
Some individuals, especially company employees, claimed that the nature of the attack was a ransomware campaign. Furthermore, numerous personnel, including customers, expressed disappointment since the company lacked transparency regarding this incident.
The alleged ransomware attack on Essendant occurred earlier this month, and LockBit quickly appeared as the attacker.
On March 14th, the LockBit ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cybercriminal attack against Essendant. The threat actors have also provoked the affected company by threatening to leak the stolen data.
Other researchers believed that the attack on Essendant started around the evening of Monday, March 6th, since the outage occurred during that period.
In Essendant’s past notifications, the outage kept its customers from completing an order transaction, placing orders, and contacting customer service. In addition, the wholesale products distributed stated advised its suppliers to withhold shipments.
The company did not specify the cause of the outage, resulting in confusion among its employees and customers regarding the incident. They have yet to post a public update that addresses the blackout.
However, the company revised a note to address the public after the LockBit ransomware claimed the attack. Essendant discussed its ongoing investigation and recovery efforts, which includes system clean-up.
The latest post has still labeled the incident as a network outage, which opposed the idea of an outage since a malicious group has already claimed the attack. Therefore, the company should consider the incident as a ransomware attack.
Numerous cybercriminal incidents have caused massive damage to Europe since Essendant is not the only company that has suffered an attack this past few months. Last month the LockBit gang also attacked the United Kingdom’s Royal Mail, resulting in the company’s outage and operational disruption.
