Breaking news, Taiz Travelex, cyberattack

Travelex was forced to shut down all of its computer systems and revert to using pens and paper files to organize accounts, following hackers attacking the company's website and demanding ransom in exchange for exit from the site.

A number of banks have stopped processing foreign exchange requests as a result of this attack on the famous foreign exchange company's website.

The banks of Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank and Bank of Scotland were affected, and large supermarkets such as Sainsbury and Tesco followed, all of whom are used to obtaining currency from Travelex.

However, the company's employees used pens and paper to maintain the flow of funds and to carry out transactions at the company's currency exchange offices at airports and markets.

Banks said that currency transfers from Travelex were interrupted by this attack, which occurred last week.

A representative from the Bank of Scotland said: "We cannot accept any exchange requests at this time, whether online, at branches or by phone due to these issues with the foreign currency provider Travelex." He added: "We apologize for any inconvenience."

• Breakthrough

A hacking gang called the BBC and told it that it owned the Travelex website and demanded that the company pay a ransom of $ 6 million.

After the group known as "Sodinokepe" entered the Travelex network, the company had to deactivate its websites in 30 countries as it tackled the "virus and virus problem."

• Data protection".

Travelex has thousands of ATMs and exchange offices at airports and city centers around the world. She used the traditional way of doing business using a pen and paper instead of computers.

The gang, also known as "REVIL", claims to have hacked into the corporate computer network six months ago and downloaded 5 gigabytes of sensitive customer data.

Gang members say their date of birth, credit card information and national insurance numbers are all in their possession.

The gang threatened to say, "If paid, we will delete and not use this database and restore the entire network."

And I set a date to receive the ransom amount within two days, after which it will be granted seven days, otherwise the entire database will be sold.

• Police investigation

London police, which is investigating the attack, issued a statement saying it had received a call about a "cyberattack for ransom attack" targeting a foreign exchange company. An investigation is underway into the circumstances of the attack.

Travelex says it works in cooperation with the police and has recruited teams of IT professionals and external internet security experts, working around the clock.

• A complex hacking group

According to Fabian Wazar, an expert in the electronic security company "Emsisoft", the attack bears all the hallmarks of the "REvil" gang.

"What we do know about the incident and the way hackers have worked in the past leads me to believe that Revell has already penetrated the Travelex site," he said.

He explained that Sudinokibe / Revell, a very complex group that has been operating for a long time. The amount of ransom it requires is proportional to the size of the victims of their attack on a large company such as Travelex. Stealing data gives the threatened parties an additional bargaining chip in their dealings with companies unwilling to pay the ransom.

Travelex insists that no customer data has been leaked, but has not determined what data may be at risk.

The company's websites across Europe, Asia and the United States have remained closed and offline (offline) since last December 31, with a message to visitors to the site indicating that the service was interrupted due to a prescribed maintenance date.