Arran Brewery has been the victim of a ransomware attack after a worker opened an email attachment that contained the virus.

The cyber criminals demanded that the company fork over two bitcoins, worth a total of £9,600, in order to have its system unlocked.

The brewery says it refused to cooperate with the attackers and, as a result, lost three months’ worth of sales data from one server. Since the attack, the company says it has engaged the services of an IT consultant to remove the virus from its system and is now working on restoring the lost data.

Attackers Hid Virus Amongst CVs for Brewery Position

Arran Brewery managing director, Gerald Michaluk, described the attack as “very devious”.

He said: “We advertise job vacancies on our website. One such job vacancy was for a credit control and finance assistant post, now filled.

“Out of the blue we started getting applicants for the post from all over the country and the world. I assumed one of my colleagues had advertised the post. However, this was not the case; the attackers had taken our website vacancy and posted it on some international jobs site.

“We were getting three of four emails a day, all with attached CVs. The virus was in among the genuine job seekers, and when the CV was opened it took effect.”

He added: “I hope if anyone finds themselves in a similar position they can recognise the MO of these bandits and not have the same issues we have had.”

Ransomware is an Increasingly Popular Attack Vector

Chief ethical hacker at the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, Gerry Grant, said: “It can be very difficult to verify every single email that comes in but you should be suspicious about attachments from people you don’t know or are not expecting.

“My advice to people is that they should not pay any ransom because there is no guarantee that those responsible won’t ask you for more money even if you pay up.

“The best course of action is to contact the police and alert them to an attack. Firms should also make sure they have a plan in place if it happens so they don’t run about in a panic.”

Chief Inspector Scott Tees, of Police Scotland’s cyber crime prevention team, said: “Ransomware attacks can be very sophisticated and potentially devastating for individuals and small businesses.

“We would advise every computer user to ensure they’re running the latest versions of security software, and have their data backed up regularly to cloud services or devices not connected to their computer.

“Be extremely vigilant about opening any unsolicited email and visiting websites you are not familiar with.”