Travelex still down two weeks after Sodinokibi ransomware infection

Travelex is still struggling to get back on its feet after it was infected with Sodinokibi ransomware on New Year”s Eve, but the foreign exchange firm says the hack compromised no customer data.

Two weeks ago, Travelex learned it had fallen victim to a cyber-attack that had lasted six months. The attackers had given away their presence after deploying the Sodinokibi ransomware strain, which brought the company”s operations to a complete halt in the days to follow. The cybercriminals had leveraged an unpatched critical vulnerability in Pulse Secure VPN servers – a weakness that Travelex had been warned about by security experts long before the breach, according to reports.

The company shut down all operations in 30 countries as the criminals demanded $6 million for the keys to decrypt the data. The attackers also claimed to have stolen 5GB of personal information, including credit card numbers of Travelex customers.

While Travelex is unfortunately still down two weeks after the incident, there”s also some good news to be had, according to a notice on the company”s home page.

“We”re sorry but our online travel money service isn”t available right now,” reads the notice. “This is as a result of a software virus. On discovering the virus, and as a precautionary measure, Travelex immediately took all its systems offline to prevent the spread of the virus further across the network.”

“Whilst the investigation is still ongoing,” Travelex continues, “to date our investigation shows that customer data has not been compromised,” the company clarifies.

In other words, the attackers could be lying about the 5GB of exfiltrated data, but that”s not certain until the investigation is completed.

According to the notice (reproduced in full below), the firm has contained the infection and is working to resume normal operations.

The advisory also includes workarounds for customers seeking additional information about the situation, to view their balance and transactions, recover PIN numbers, and other specifics.

Travelex branches around the world are able to provide foreign exchange services, albeit in a limited manner since employees are forced to conduct many operations manually. The breach has also disrupted foreign exchange services at several banks that rely on Travelex to provide those services, including Barclays, HSBC, Sainsbury’s Bank, First Direct, Virgin Money, and others.