FedEx said an cyberattack suffered by computer systems the world over last month will likely have a material, adverse impact on the delivery company’s operations once it fully understands the damages caused by the debilitating Petya virus.
The Tennessee-headquartered company explained in federal filing Monday that Petya-infected computers used TNT Express, a Dutch delivery firm acquired by FedEx in late 2016, resulting in ongoing and “widespread service delays, including invoicing, and manual processes are being used to facilitate a significant portion of TNT Express operations and customer service functions.”
“At this time, we cannot estimate how long it will take to restore the systems that were impacted and it is reasonably possible that TNT Express will be unable to fully restore all of the affected systems and recover all of the critical business data that was encrypted by the virus,” FedEx acknowledged in the filing.
FedEx has “experienced loss of revenue due to decreased volumes at TNT Express and incremental costs associated with the implementation of contingency plans and the remediation of affected systems,” the company continued.
“Given the recent timing and magnitude of the attack, in addition to our initial focus on restoring TNT Express operations and customer service functions, we are still evaluating the financial impact of the attack, but it is likely that it will be material,” it added.
FedEx stock dropped 3.4 percent Monday morning and had all but recovered by end of trading Wednesday.
Petya infected computers across the globe last month beginning with a Ukrainian tech firm, MeDoc, responsible for making the country most popular tax software. Cybersecurity experts have said the virus was spread by an malicious MeDoc update and quickly penetrated computers systems in Ukraine and beyond, including international law firm DLA Piper and a Pennsylvania healthcare provider, among others. It’ perpetrator has not been publicly identified.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.