A ransomware attack on a significant payroll company is causing chaos at several major companies. The attack on Kronos, a renowned HR Management software, prevents its clients from processing payrolls, timesheets, and managing their workforce. Likewise, this ransomware attack threatening paychecks comes just in time for the holidays and could last longer.
The attack hit Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) and Kronos Workforce Central, which contains a suite of workforce management solutions. Subsequently, the ransomware attack has left significant companies trying to come up with a backup plan.
Kronos has one of the most extensive HR management operations in the U.S. and has a long list of clients. The ransomware attack hit the company on Saturday, as per their announcement. Right after the outage, UKG recommended that its customers “evaluate alternative plans to process time and attendance data for payroll processing.”
UKG’s list of clients includes Tesla, GameStop, Honda, Sainbury’s, Puma, and several more. It also has the YMCA and other state organizations as its clients. Moreover, UKG said their service would remain inaccessible for “several weeks,” which caused trouble.
Anonymous sources told ZDNet that some companies will be missing their payroll this week. A person on the Sysadmin subreddit explains why, as the companies are tallying employee hours manually and producing mail checks without UKG’s services.
However, more and more companies are coming up with alternate solutions to process payrolls. According to NBC News, Whole Foods stated that it’ll be able to pay its employees on Friday. Despite the ransomware attack, some companies have promised to give out paychecks on time.
