{"id":33422,"date":"2020-02-20T15:10:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/30955\/ISS-World-Hack-Leaves-Thousands-Of-Employees-Offline.html"},"modified":"2020-02-20T15:10:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:10:24","slug":"iss-world-hack-leaves-thousands-of-employees-offline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/iss-world-hack-leaves-thousands-of-employees-offline\/","title":{"rendered":"ISS World Hack Leaves Thousands Of Employees Offline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"AImage copyright<\/span> Getty Images<\/span> <\/span>
Image caption<\/span> ISS World provides cleaning and security services worldwide <\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A cyber-attack has hit the major facilities company ISS World, which has half a million employees worldwide.<\/p>\n

ISS provides cleaning, catering, security and other services to companies in the UK and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Its websites have been down since 17 February. And This Week in Facilities Management said<\/a> 43,000 staff at London’s Canary Wharf and its Weybridge HQ, in Surrey, still had no email. <\/p>\n

Ransomware attacks encrypt IT systems, locking users out and demanding money.<\/p>\n

The company says that many of its 500,000 global employees do not use its computers in their daily work – but the impact is affecting the whole company. <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/figure>\n

Big companies, big payoffs<\/h2>\n

Analysis by Joe Tidy, Cyber-security reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ransomware has become the biggest challenge in cyber-security. <\/p>\n

The frequency of attacks now makes it impossible to report on every incident but the overall picture is bleak. <\/p>\n

In the past couple of years, the number of individual victims has actually decreased. <\/p>\n

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Media playback is unsupported on your device<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

Media caption<\/span>Technology explained: what is ransomware?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hackers are all but ignoring the low-hanging fruit of home-PC owners and instead concentrating their resources and time on bigger targets for bigger rewards \u2013 and ransom payments are rising, with some hacker gangs successfully extorting millions from victims. <\/p>\n

The issue is a big concern for law enforcement agencies such as Europol and the FBI, which are constantly urging people not to pay hackers as it fuels the industry.<\/p>\n

But if your company’s future is on the line, it’s a tough decision to take.<\/p>\n

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Recovery efforts are being led from the company’s headquarters in Denmark, where teams of cyber-security experts are working alongside Danish police.<\/p>\n