Vantage Travel says ‘cruises are sailing’
Website service restored after 8-day outage
Eight days after an apparent ransomware attack took down its website, Vantage Travel, the Boston-based international travel company, on Friday restored its website and announced to travelers “our cruises are sailing, and we’re ready to welcome you aboard.”
“As you may be aware, on April 20 our company discovered a ransomware attack which took down our call center, website, email, and other internal systems,” the company said in its statement posted on its website.
Vantage said its restored website had “limited functionality as we continue to troubleshoot.”
“Our employees are working around the clock to overcome these challenges to continue serving guests who are en route or preparing for future departures,” according to the statement. “We apologize for the distress this is causing and thank you for your patience as we work with the experts to resolve these matters and bring you the latest information,” it said.
In the statement, Vantage acknowledged that it has recently canceled six trips, but said none was due to the apparent ransomware attack: “No trips have been disrupted or canceled specifically due to this incident.”
Instead, it said four “spring tulips” cruises in the Netherlands were canceled due to issues with the ship’s “readiness,” and two cruises on the Nile in Egypt were scrubbed due to security concerns.
The statement cited a “recent US State Department Sudan travel advisory,” and said, given Egypt’s proximity to Sudan, the company was “closely monitoring our trips to Egypt until further notice for the safety of our guests.”
The Globe in an April 24 story incorrectly reported that the apparent hack had led Vantage to cancel one trip to the Netherlands, and incorrectly reported in an April 26 story that Vantage blamed the apparent hack for that cancellation. In an April 27 story, the Globe incorrectly reported the company told a customer that the cancellation was due to the apparent hack.
The first story was based on an April 23 email to one wouldbe traveler, Ileene Chernoff, in which the company said “regrettably we must inform you that your upcoming trip is canceled,” less than 48 hours before it was set to begin with a flight to Amsterdam.
That email cited “an unprecedented outage affecting all of our phone, my portfolio, and reservations systems,” and included an apology for “the last minute notification,” but did not explicitly give a reason for the cancellation, saying instead that Vantage has been unable to reach Chernoff to give her “important information” and that a “trip alert” had been posted in her traveler portal before the apparent hack, but which Chernoff was unable to access due to the apparent hack.
A Vantage spokesperson said in an interview on April 24 that there had been a possible ransomware attack, but no explicit link was made between it and Chernoff ’s canceled trip.