Kwik Fit hack highlights dangers of malware for businesses

Recently we wrote an article detailing predictions from some of the world’s top experts including McAfee and the World Economic Forum forecasting greater levels of hacking and phishing in 2019. Well it appears that we have the first major casualty of 2019 with a major hack of UK firm Kwik Fit’s computer network.

The popular car service specialist has over 600 garages across the United Kingdom and Ireland and provides tyres, exhausts, batteries and breaks as well as MOT testing and car servicing. However, the chain experienced a recent malware attack which caused huge delays to customers’ car repairs as garages were unable to process orders.

The news was first highlighted after the company responded to a customer complaint on the social media network Twitter. A number of customers complained that appointments had been cancelled and that phone lines were not being answered. The company responded by explaining that there were ongoing “technical difficulties” causing systems to go offline and that they were working on a fix. Despite claiming that the problem had been fixed, users continued to report problems, with the company eventually explaining and confirming that a virus had infected its IT systems – likely to be malware but that that data was not believed to be compromised.

This latest incident of malware infection highlights the headache of IT security for all types of businesses in the UK and the scope of the disruption it can cause.  What’s more, this is a trend that is only expected to grow in the near future with more and more businesses being targeted for infection and subsequent extortion.

Here at ECL, we have extensive experience in protecting businesses against the latest computer hacks, viruses, malware, spam, phishing scams and other threats and can advise you on the best methods of protecting your business. We can also help businesses to upgrade and run the latest and most secure versions of operating systems. For more information, please call us on 01268 575300 or email us on info@ecl.co.uk.