Suspected cyber-attack halts Royal Mail overseas post

PARCELS and letters are stuck in limbo after Royal Mail’s international division was hit by a suspected cyber-attack.

More than half a million items were piled up in warehouses after a computer system used to send them abroad was paralysed.

The chaos comes after months of strikes that have already created huge backlogs of mail. Customers who have already posted items to overseas addresses have been told to expect delays until further notice, with Royal Mail urging customers not to post new items while disruption continues. The company normally exports hundreds of thousands of parcels per day.

It is understood the attack crippled software used to generate customs labels for outgoing post. One source said the problem had rendered automated machines in the sorting centres useless.

Royal Mail confirmed it was being assisted by the National Cyber Security Centre, a division of GCHQ, and the National Crime Agency, to determine the cause of the incident, which was first detected on Tuesday morning. Six sites were affected yesterday, including the company’s huge sorting centre near Heathrow, where most outgoing international mail is sent.

The company handled 74 million parcels going abroad in the six months to the end of September, according to its most recent financial results, or an average of 400,000 per day. It is not known how many items were posted over the two days affected by the hack.

It came on the same day as a separate IT glitch grounded flights across the US, although that was not thought to have been caused by hackers.

Royal Mail, part of Britain’s critical infrastructure, gave no indication of when it expects normal service to resume. Experts warned the disruption could potentially drag on for weeks.

Royal Mail said: “We have asked customers temporarily to stop submitting any export items into the network while we work hard to resolve the issue. Some may experience delay or disruption to items already shipped for export.

“Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this disruption and we will update customers as soon as we have more information.” The National Cyber Security Centre said: “We are working with Royal Mail, alongside the National Crime Agency, to fully understand the impact.”

Jake Moore, at software business ESET, said: “After multiple strikes and labour shortages, this attack will have come at one of the worst possible times for the postal service.

“It seems to have severely impacted their systems, and it could take weeks for things to return to the way they were before the incident.”

Mail to Ministry of Defence personnel overseas is not affected as it is taken by military planes.