Royal Mail resumes international deliveries after cyber-attack
Royal Mail has restarted international parcel and letter deliveries almost six weeks after it revealed it had been affected by a ransomware cyber-attack that left it battling to get its international services back up and running.
The delivery company refused to pay an $80m (£67m) ransom demanded by hackers linked to Russia after the “cyber incident”, which resulted in 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK being unable to handle international mail or parcels.
“We have worked day and night in partnership with Royal Mail to reinstate all international services via our branch network,” said Neill O’Sullivan, the managing director of parcels and mails at the Post Office.
“Postmasters have been the innocent victims of this faceless crime, unable to support businesses and consumers wishing to use their expertise to get parcels sent abroad.”
The Post Office said branch operators would be provided with “additional remuneration” for handling international items, in the form of a fixed payment for each transaction, as well as an additional commission for all Royal Mail international labels sold in branches during February and March.
“These past weeks have been difficult for postmasters who through no fault of their own have missed out on remuneration for providing international mails services,” O’Sullivan said. “Postmasters are operating in a tough economic climate and this package of remuneration improvements should help rebuild their earnings from international parcels.”
It emerged last week that Royal Mail rejected an “absurd” ransom demand for $80m from the hackers in exchange for decrypting the files.
While its services are back running at full capacity, the company is poised to face another round of strikes by its 115,000 postal
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