Supplier to major supermarkets hit by cyber attack

pA distributor to the UKs major supermarkets has said it is being held to ransom by cyber hackersppLogistics firm Peter Green Chilled said it supplies supermarkets including Tesco Sainsburys and Aldi but it is relatively small compared with larger UK food distributorsppIt told BBCs Wake Up to Money clients were receiving regular updates including workarounds on how to continue deliveries while one of its customers said thousands of their products could go to wasteppRecent major cyberattacks on Marks Spencer and Coop were larger but the attack highlights the challenges smaller logistics firms face an industry source saidppIn an email sent on Thursday seen by the BBC Peter Green Chilled said it had been the victim of a ransomware attackppA ransomware attack is when hackers encrypt a victims data and lock them out of computer systems demanding payment to hand back controlppThe email said no orders would be processed on Thursday although any order prepared on Wednesday would be sentppPeter Green Chilled confirmed to the BBC the cyber attack happened on Wednesday evening but it said it was not in a position to discuss furtherppThe transport activities of the business have continued unaffected throughout this incident its managing director Tom Binks saidppOne of Peter Green Chilleds customers Black Farmer founder Wilfred EmmanuelJones said he had something like ten pallets worth of meat products with Peter Green ChilledppHe said if those products dont get to the retailers in time they will have to be thrown in the binppTen pallets is thousands and thousands of packs of products sitting there and the clock is ticking he said Theres no information Everything along the chain has to be stopped and then there are thousands of pounds worth of product that are just wasting awayppPeter Green Chilled is a firm based near Shepton Mallet in Somerset that transports chilled food mainly to regional storesppThere are much larger chilled food distributors in the UK for example Lineage GXO and CulinappAn industry source said these big firms which distribute the largest volume of chilled food in the UK and internationally have the resources to try to combat cyber attacks while smaller firms may notppHowever Phil Pluck chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation said the warehousing food storage and distribution sectors were constantly under attackppA few years ago there were a few cyber and ransomware attacks but in the last year there has been a huge increase he saidppAbout half of the food consumed in the UK goes through the cold chain sector he said so hackers know how critical distribution is for putting food on supermarket shelves ppHe added that was a really good lever to put the pressure on our companies to actually pay that ransomwareppMr Pluck said that he knew of at least ten attacks on member companies but that firms like to keep attacks under the radarppHe said cyber attacks were hugely underreported in any sector because once youre attacked you lose control of your company both through the attack and the mitigations by police and insurersppCoop narrowly avoided being locked out of its systems during an attack which exposed customer data and caused shortages of stockppA ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack on MS which saw customer data stolen and empty shelves The retailer itself said it had suffered a cyber attackppSian John chief technology officer at tech security firm NCC Group said one weak spot for retail was its supply chainppShe said threats from hackers are not confined to highprofile retailers or major brands but also exist in the links that connect themppBusinesses say the road closure has impacted trade and kept customers awayppThe return of online shopping marks a key milestone for the retailer which has struggling to get services back to normalppIndependent high street retailers say big brands opening shops in Guernsey can be good for businessppMS plans to open a new foodonly store to replace its existing fullline department store in CreweppSarah Horne says she is not sure Leamingtons Parade needs the changeppCopyright 2025 BBC All rights reserved  The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites Read about our approach to external linkingpp p