A cyberattack that began on September 20 impacted MoneyGram International Inc.'s services significantly, likely due to a ransomware attack, causing significant disruptions to its services. There were reports of outages affecting company networks, and by September 23, the company was able to confirm that the problem had come from a cybersecurity vulnerability.
It took MoneyGram's systems offline to prevent further damage, consulted with cybersecurity experts, and informed law enforcement authorities about its efforts as it worked to restore normal operations as soon as possible.
After widespread outages, MoneyGram's website and several of its services were restored after widespread outages that impeded millions of people from sending money to families around the world due to widespread outages.
As MoneyGram announced on X, it immediately launched an investigation.
It took preventative steps to address the situation, including working with leading cybersecurity experts and coordinating with law enforcement agencies to address it. As a follow-up to Wednesday's note from MoneyGram, the company explained on Wednesday that several of its partners were now "available for sending and receiving money, as well as fulfilling pending transactions as part of MoneyGram's restoration process."
MoneyGram's app and several MoneyGram locations remain inaccessible for millions of customers and businesses across the globe, preventing them from transferring funds or processing transactions.
To ensure safety, several systems of the company were taken offline as a precaution, causing many countries to experience extended service disruptions.
As MoneyGram processes over 120 million transactions a year, the company's enormous customer base has been significantly impacted by the incident, however, the full extent of the damage has yet to be determined.
There has not been any official confirmation as to whether ransomware was involved in the attack, despite the company working closely with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement.
There was still no news on Tuesday as to when MoneyGram's website might be up and running, and there was no update on when it would be fully operational again.
There are more than $200 billion in transactions processed by MoneyGram each year, serving thousands of individuals and businesses around the world.
In addition to disrupting financial services, a cyberattack of this scale also risks exposing sensitive customer information that can be used to identify customers. There have been increasingly frequent ransomware attacks against financial institutions, and these incidents highlight the vulnerability of digital payment networks, along with their potential for causing significant economic disruption when some of these attacks are successful.
Modern businesses are often faced with several immediate threats that can disrupt their operations, such as ransomware attacks, that can disrupt operations to the point of total failure. Whenever sensitive data and critical system components are taken over, an organization will find that its operations are crippled as a result.
As a result, the impact of the incident goes beyond the direct disruption to the company's operations only.
The revenue loss, opportunities missed, and damage to the company's reputation are only a few of the consequences.
Despite the warnings from experts, MoneyGram is likely to sustain serious financial and reputational damage as a result of this disruption.
It is estimated that over 120 million transactions are processed each year, making even a few days of downtime damaging the company's reputation, customer trust, and even the company's reputation for security.
The impact of downtime can be seen as significant, according to cybersecurity experts.
The chief product officer at Aryaka Networks Inc.'s integrated secure access service edge company, Renuka Nadkarni, said, "Breach into critical infrastructure such as this can have devastating effects on both organizations and their users."
There are some cases where MoneyGram processes up to 120 million transactions annually from tens of millions of users, according to Nadkarni. MoneyGram is the world's second-largest money transfer company. As there are millions of users and transactions involved, even a few days of downtime can have severe consequences in terms of financial losses and damage to the company's reputation as well as customer trust."
Research conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indicated that, since the onset of the Pandemic a decade ago, the frequency of cyberattacks has more than doubled. It should be noted that despite modest direct losses from these incidents in the past, the overall financial impact that they have had has been significant.
An example of such a breach is the breach involving Equifax, one of the largest credit reporting agencies in the United States in 2017 that resulted in the payment of over $1 billion in penalties.
It is becoming increasingly clear that cyber incidents come with several potential risks. Since 2017, the International Monetary Fund has reported that extreme losses from cyberattacks have quadrupled, reaching an estimated $2.5 billion in damages.
In the absence of effective cybersecurity management, indirect costs can far exceed those of direct financial losses, such as reputational damage and the need for additional security measures. This demonstrates the importance of managing cybersecurity efficiently at all costs.
As a result, cyber attacks against financial institutions account for nearly 20% of all incidents in the financial sector, making them one of the most vulnerable sectors to cybercrime.
It is often found that banks are the most frequently targeted group due to the sensitive nature of their operations which makes them a prime target. In the event of a successful cyberattack, public confidence in the financial system could be undermined, essential services may be disrupted, and additional consequences may be experienced by other institutions as a consequence.
It was reported by Security Week that Zscaler, in its ThreatLabz 2024 Ransomware Report, is aware of a company that is known to have paid a record-breaking $75 million ransom to Dark Angels, an organized ransomware group reputed to be based in Russia.
According to the company's report, between April 2023 and April 2024, the company collected data demonstrating an 18% increase year-over-year in the number of ransomware attacks recorded.
There has been a record-breaking ransom payment made in early 2024, according to Wyse Cyber, according to the company, and the victim has not been identified. A report released by Zscaler estimates that $75 million is nearly double the highest publicly known ransom payment that has ever been paid.
With thousands of millions of users in over 200 countries having been affected by MoneyGram's outage, this has caused significant disruptions for the company's vast customer base.
MoneyGram is the world's second-largest money transfer company, coming in second only to Western Union in total money transfers each year, with over 120 million transactions processed.
Customers have been experiencing issues sending or receiving payments in recent days, which has raised concerns about the prospect of a data breach, and the impact this may have on the company's reputation long-term.
MoneyGram has assured its customers that restoring services is its top priority. However, the company has not provided a specific timeline for when full functionality will be restored. In the interim, users are left in a state of uncertainty, awaiting updates regarding when they will be able to regain access to their funds and finalize any pending transactions.
Despite MoneyGram's efforts to resolve the issue, the lack of a clear timeframe continues to affect customers, many of whom rely on the platform for essential financial transfers.
