Deliberate cyber attacks put cost to company at $290,000
Details have been presented of a computer hacking case involving an Australian transport and logistics firm.
Speaking at the Victorian Transport Association (VTA) state conference in Lorne, Brendon Kropp, business development manager at insurance firm Arthur J Gallagher, urged members to consider computer safety as seriously as any other operational safety issue.
Though the company remained unnamed, it was said to have 130 staff and have annual revenue of $40 million.
It recently suffered multiple deliberate attacks to its network over a four week period aimed at crippling it operations.
They resulted in failure of its email and inhouse software which affected ordering, stock movements, invoicing, payroll and auditing functions.
In total, its systems were down for three weeks and the business was forced to migrate the inhouse computer functions to a cloud provider.
The cost to the company was put at $290,000 in IT forensics, IT expenses and loss adjusters to locate and rectify the problem and restore connectivity to the entire network.
The main suspect is thought to be a disgruntled subcontractor.