Travelex: a month offline after ransomware
A currency exchange giant has been running on pen and paper since New Year’s Eve. Reports point to an unpatched VPN.
Travelex was hit by ransomware on New Year’s Eve, and for weeks its websites and many branch systems have been down. Staff in airports went back to pen and paper. The banks that use Travelex for currency couldn’t sell travel money either.
Reports say the attackers got in through a Pulse Secure VPN server that hadn’t been patched for a bug fixed months earlier.
Three lessons:
- Patch the VPN first. The bug was public and exploited since summer. Internet-facing systems can’t wait for the quarterly cycle.
- Plan how to work offline. Travelex kept some branches going on paper. Could your business?
- Think about your partners. Banks relying on Travelex couldn’t serve their own customers. Know which suppliers you can’t work without.
Ransomware isn’t a few hours of downtime anymore. Plan for weeks.