Delivery broker ParcelHero has today demanded that Russia pay £213m for the damage suffered by TNT and Fedex in last year's NotPetya cyber attack.
Parcelhero's comments come as Lord Ahmad, the foreign office minister for cybersecurity, yesterday blamed Russia for the NotPetya malware attack which spread across the globe and caused businesses to lose millions of pounds.
Though it appeared to start in Ukraine, the NotPetya malware spread across 64 countries infecting systems in businesses such as WPP, Maersk and Reckitt Benckiser.
"Now the UK Government has confirmed Russia was behind last June’s NotPetya ransomware attack, Russia should foot the bill for the impact on TNT’s global shipping operations," said Parcelhero's David Jinks.
"TNT staff on the ground worked miracles last summer keeping shipments moving and stemming the backlog caused by the impact of the virus on TNT’s systems. Amazingly, the vast majority of TNT Express services resumed during the quarter, but there was significant disruption to TNT’s customers and those booking TNT shipments through ParcelHero."
TNT had recently been acquired by Fedex, which reported profits slashed by $300m due to the attack. "It’s not only TNT that suffered – its many business and domestic users had to endure delays and even some lost shipments during the crisis," Jinks added.
NotPetya is a more harmful descendant of the Petya ransomware which became widespread in 2016. Unlike Petya, which encrypts files so a computer is unusable and demands a bitcoin payment to resolve this, NotPetya damages files beyond repair and is therefore classed as a malware.
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As well as cooperating with western authorities over the cyber attacks, Jinks claimed that Russia must to more to allow logistics companies to operate in the country.
Back in 2014 Russia introduced new requirements to fill in paperwork for overseas deliveries to private addresses, which Jinks said were "excessive" and prevented western businesses delivering to Russia.
With Russia hosting the football World Cup later this year, this system may come under pressure.
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