As we described a few days ago, foreign currency exchange service Travelex discovered on New Year’s Eve that its systems had been compromised by hackers.
The company’s websites worldwide were brought down unceremoniously, and a few days later users were still being greeted by an error message.
Whether the website downtime was a consequence of the attack, or a deliberate action by the company is unclear.
But it’s certainly hardly the most informative message for customers who might have found that they couldn’t access their accounts, or use the Travelex app, or were attempting to purchase currency online through many of Travelex’s partners such as Barclays, HSBC, Sainsbury’s Bank.
But never fear! After a few more days the Travelex website was updated – albeit to explain that the website was “temporarily unavailable due to planned maintenance.”
“Planned maintenance”? Hmm… Travelex’s official Twitter account was a little more forthcoming with the truth, admitting that its systems had been hit by a “software virus”.
Speculation rose meanwhile in the technology press that Travelex had been hit by ransomware, and that staff had been ordered by bosses not to answer any questions about the incident but simply refer to it as a “system problem.”
Now, finally, Travelex has ‘fessed up that yes – it was ransomware that infected their systems. Its beleaguered webpage was u ..
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