When a site on which you save your data alerts you to the weakness of your password, it is best not to take the warning lightly. The British company KNP Logistics, the flagship of transport on the island for 158 years, paid the price. While the company, an economic pillar of Northamptonshire, was operating more than 500 trucks across the country under the Knights of Old brand, an event caused the company to sink in no time.
The culprit? A weak password, used by an employee, discovered in seconds by a gang of cybercriminals. The hackers, identified as members of the Akira Group, infiltrated the breach in no time, before encrypting KNP’s critical data, paralyzing its internal operations and demanding a ransom. If its amount has not been revealed, a specialist firm interviewed by the BBC estimates that it would have been around 5 million pounds sterling (around 5.7 million euros).
Attacks on the rise
An amount far too high for the company, which was unable to pay it. More than a century and a half of data was erased in one click, causing the automatic bankruptcy of the group… and the dismissal of 700 people.
The KNP case is far from isolated. Several major brands across the Channel, such as M&S, Co-op and Harrods, have recently suffered similar attacks. In France, the situation is far from better: in 2024, nearly 4,400 cyberattacks were recorded by the National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI), an increase of 15% compared to 2023.
The operating mode, too, is constantly evolving, explains the British media. While some attacks are particularly complex, others are disconcertingly simple: a simple phone call to the IT department pretending to be an employee and that’s it.
A new generation of hackers is also emerging, sometimes with little technical skills. These cybercriminals rely primarily on tools available on the dark web, or even directly rent access to malware. This model is attracting more and more people, particularly because of the colossal profits generated by ransomware, software that takes personal or professional data hostage.
In this game, these criminals can indeed hit the jackpot: in the United Kingdom, the average ransom amounts to around 4.6 million euros and a third of companies simply agree to pay. A password that is too weak can literally cost you dearly.
