Security News > 2022 > January > Umbrella company Parasol Group confirms cyber attack as 'root cause' of prolonged network outage
Umbrella company Parasol Group has confirmed why it shut down part of its IT last week: it found unauthorised activity from an intruder.
Tech freelancers suspected a cyberattack was to blame for the blackout and sure enough the Group wrote to customers at the close of last working week to explain in more detail what had happened.
Crawford - who did not confirm the nature of the break-in, widely speculated to be ransomware - added: "The activity did not enter via the core Parasol platforms, but to ensure the safety and integrity of your data, we suspended our systems to protect the Parasol community. As you know, this included the MyParasol portal and our other outbound and inbound communication channels," he said in the email.
The Register tried to email chief sales officer Greet Brosens last week and called the switchboard but the call didn't connect.
We rang the number above today and a connecting message stated Parasol Group was experiencing a high volume of calls.
Crawford said in the email it was "Continuing to make same day payments" during the last weekend to pay umbrella workers as quickly as possible.