North Korean Hackers Delay Alcohol Delivery in Sweden with Ransomware

North Korean hackers attacked a Swedish alcohol supplier, which in turn has crimped the nationwide distribution of alcoholic beverages by 15%.

Ransomware attacks usually seriously impact companies, but people typically hear about them when they have a real effect on the market and on people's lives. For example, when hackers hit a hospital, the effects are immediate and can endanger people's lives. Global oil prices were directly affected when criminals attacked an oil pipeline system. Ransomware always comes with a direct cost to consumers.

In Sweden, North Korean hackers compromised the internal systems of a distribution company named Skanlog, which in turn affected the countrywide availability of alcoholic beverages distribution. The situation is a bit different in Sweden as there's only one retailer for alcohol, Systembolaget, which relies on multiple suppliers, including Skanlog.

"It affects about 15% of our sales volume. Wine and liquor most of all," said Sofia Sjöman Waas, spokesperson for Systembolaget, according to Euronews. "We are accustomed to handling small to large scales of disruptions even though they are rarely on this scale. We have many other items delivered to us as usual via other distributors. Therefore there will continuously be many alternatives available at our stores."

The attack happened on April 22, and the company has yet to resume distribution as they don't know how the systems were compromised yet.

"We have been centrally attacked by a cyber attack, which has caused our entire system to be down until we can fix it and get it back up," explainedSkanlog's CEO Mona Zuko in an interview with Dagens Industri.

There's no information on what the ransom is or if the attackers also stole information before locking the systems, which is the usual strategy in these situations.