BBC: British Post has been partially paralyzed by a cyberattack

Britain’s post office, Royal Mail, has fallen victim to a cyberattack that has crippled international mail, according to a BBC report. Accordingly, parts of the company’s software were infected with a malware called Lockbit, commonly referred to as ransomware. Extortion software allows criminals to encrypt data, thus making it unusable.

As BBC reported today, the Royal Mail has demanded a multimillion-dollar ransom to decrypt the data. The company did not initially confirm that it was a cyberattack. However, in one of the messages it called on customers not to post any messages or packages for international destinations.

According to the BBC, Lockbit was developed and used by hackers with links to Russia. Thus the perpetrators in the Royal Mail case could be anywhere in the world.

A spokesperson for the National Crime Agency said it was working to assess the impact of the incident. According to the BBC, the incident is significant because Royal Mail is part of the country’s critical infrastructure.