Ransomware attacks are happening on the payments industry leader NCR data center

Ransomware struck US payments leader NCR, focusing on one of its data centers in Aloha, Hawaii. A few days after beginning to look into an "issue" with its Aloha restaurant point-of-sale (PoS) product, the company disclosed the hack on Saturday.

The warning states, "On April 13, we confirmed that the downtime was caused by ransomware attacks. "As soon as we learned about this development, we contacted customers, hired outside cybersecurity experts, and started an investigation. Additionally, law enforcement has been informed.

Additionally, according to the firm, restaurants affected by the ransomware attacks on payments can continue to serve their customers because only "specific functionality" has been damaged, and "no impact to payment applications or on-premises systems."

However, research from the security firm has revealed that ransomware on PoS systems may seriously hurt businesses in the hospitality industry, according to Claroty CRO Simon Chassar.

The CEO commented on the findings, saying, "Our research shows that 51% of the food and beverage sector reported substantial disruption when hit by a ransomware attack in 2021." Furthermore, these attacks might result in large financial losses for organizations; according to more than a third, operational disruption would have a revenue impact of at least US$1,000,000 per hour.

In general, Chassar claimed that as more cyber-physical systems are used in the hospitality sector, organizations are exposed to more new cyber threats and vulnerabilities, potentially resulting in expensive operational downtime.

Businesses must have complete network visibility for all connected assets to assess their risk posture and patch vital assets like operational technology (OT) and IoT devices, according to Chassar. Additionally, segmenting their networks is crucial to limit unauthorized connectivity and malware movement and lessen the impact of intrusions.

This research by Terry Olaes, senior technical director at Skybox Security, provides more details on how to keep up with evolving threats and minimize cyber risks.