Rental car giant Sixt, a company based in Germany announced that it has been hit by a cyberattack that resulted in large-scale inconvenience in Sixt's global operations. In April, the company closed down some parts of its IT infrastructure to restrict a cyberattack.
Only important systems were operating, like the company website and mobile applications. Sixt said that the disturbance for employees and customers was expected, it believes that the disruption was contained to great extent.
According to the company, it has offered business continuity to its customers, but the temporary disruptions in customer care centers and few branches can be expected for some time. "As a standard precautionary measure, access to IT systems was immediately restricted and the pre-planned recovery processes were initiated. Many central Sixt systems, in particular, the website and apps were kept up and running," said Sixt in a statement. Sixt did most of the car bookings with pen and paper last week, and systems that were not important have been shut down after the cyberattack.
Calling customers were provided an automated notification "due to a technical problem, we are currently unavailable." No more details are available as of now, Sixt said that it has launched an inquiry into the issue, however, didn't disclose any information on how the attack happened. Sixt is requesting its customers to be patient until the issue is resolved. No ransomware group has claimed the responsibility for the attack as of now, however, the chances of ransomware are highly likely.
According to Bleeping Computer, ransomware groups are targeting companies like Sixt because of the upcoming tourism season. Vacations are easy money for car rental companies. Ransomware groups generally operate during high traffic periods to increase the chances of damage to the targets.
The greater the damage, the easier the ransom payment. Sixt said "impacts on the company, its operations and services have been minimized to provide business continuity for customers. However, temporary disruptions, in particular in customer care centers and selective branches, are likely to occur in the short term."
