Hackers hold Hula Hoops hostage in cyber-raid on Britain’s KP Snacks

LONDON (Reuters) – Hackers are hitting Britain the place it hurts by concentrating on a few of its favorite savoury snacks, with the likes of Hula Hoops, KP Nuts, Butterkist popcorn and Nik Naks of their cyber sights.

The corporate behind these manufacturers, KP Snacks, has revealed it has been hit by a cyber-attack which might hit provides of common snacks. It stated it turned conscious final Friday that it was the sufferer of a ransomware assault, the place hackers achieve entry to a community and maintain knowledge hostage.

“As quickly as we turned conscious of the incident, we enacted our cybersecurity response plan and engaged a number one forensic info know-how agency and authorized counsel to help us in our investigation,” added the British agency, well-known for its crisps, or potato chips, manufacturers that additionally embrace McCoy’s, Tyrrell’s and POM-BEAR.

“Our inner IT groups proceed to work with third-party consultants to evaluate the state of affairs.”

KP Snacks, owned by German’s Intersnack, stated it was persevering with to maintain employees, prospects, and suppliers knowledgeable of any developments and apologised for the disruption induced.

In keeping with the web site Higher Retailing, which first revealed information of the assault, KP Snacks has warned retailers of supply delays.

Britain’s savoury snackers have endured a torrid time of late; in November, the nation suffered a scarcity of crisps after an IT system improve at Walkers, the nation’s greatest producer, disrupted provides. In December, Spar wholesaler James Corridor was the sufferer of a cyber-attack, forcing the momentary closure of lots of of shops.

Such snags have compounded delays in worldwide provide chains and labour shortages in home transport and warehousing networks.

(Reporting by James Davey; Modifying by Pravin Char)