The Arran Brewery in Scotland was hit with a ransomware attack that saw a malicious actor using a job vacancy at the beer maker to slip in the malware.
The brewery, located on the small island of Arran off the Scottish coast, had posted a job opening for a credit control and finance assistant, but instead of just receiving resumes from local folks Managing Director Gerald Michaluk told The Sun the company had people sending in emails with attached CVs from around the world. He thought at first one of his staffers had inadvertently posted the position on an international job site, but what he believes actually happened was the malicious actor did so.
By creating a landslide of interested applicants and their attendant emails the cybercriminal was able to slip in a malicious attachment camouflaged as a resume. When it was opened the company was infected.
Files were immediately encrypted and a ransom demand made, Michaluk told The Sun, but instead of paying a cybersecurity team was brought in and restored enough of the files for the company to keep rolling out barrels of beer. Although a great deal of data was lost.
