Finablr PLC (LON:FIN) have told the market that its results could be affected by a malware attack and the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
Just before the turn of the New Year, Finablr saw their subsidiary business Travelex face an attack with a software virus.
Following this attack, the firm had to conduct its business manually which led to both shares crashing and business taking a massive bruising.
Today, Finablr added that they expect their earnings to take a £25 million hit following both events.
Finablr said: “Travelex has a cyber-insurance policy in place which we currently expect to off-set a material proportion of this EBITDA reduction in addition to covering the direct costs of recovery. However, the timing of EBITDA recognition and receipt of the insurance recovery is yet to be determined.
At present, Travelex does not expect the cyber-attack to have any material impact on trading during our peak periods in Q2 and Q3 2020 which contribute a large proportion of Travelex’s annual EBITDA. Travelex’s current expectation is that the results for the FY20 would reflect the benefit of the cyber-insurance policy and cost actions taken by the business.”
In addition to the malware attack, the firm added that the coronavirus could affect its Travelex business, considering the exposure and business it has within airports and the travel sector.
Due to the attack, Finablr noted that they cannot release their final results until mid April.
The firm commented: “Following the cyber-attack that affected its business from 31 December 2019, Travelex announces that it has successfully restored all its customer-facing systems in a phased and controlled programme.
The decision to immediately take the Travelex systems offline at the time of the attack contained the spread of the malware and protected the integrity of customer and partner data. The Business Continuity Plan was initiated promptly, as a result of which the majority of the business remained operational and was able to continue trading in spite of the precautionary shutdown.
Certain financial reporting tools were unavailable for part of January, as a result of which the publication of Travelex’s FY19 results is now expected to be from mid-April.”
Finablr’s data hacking crisis
At the start of January, the story hit news headlines as Finablr saw their shares crash 15%.
Travelex who was the victim of the vicious cyber attack has a presence in more than 70 countries, and holds a portfolio over 1,200 branches and 1,000 ATM’s worldwide.
Customers of Travelex have said that they have been caught up with their money being left in the midst of a cyber attack.
As far as public media is aware, the criminals behind the attack demanded a ransom of £4.6 million or the threat of leaking data and deletion of systems has been poised.
Reports have suggests that a ransomware gang called Sodinokibi carried out the attack.
The gang have made claims that it first accessed the company’s computer network six months ago and since have downloaded 5GB of customer data, something which will worry the market and consumers.
“Travelex been successful in containing the spread of the ransomware. Travelex has also confirmed whilst there has been some data encryption, there is no evidence structured personal customer data has been encrypted, and there is still no evidence any data has been exfiltrated,” said Finablr.
Shares in Finablr trade at 60p (-0.98%). 2/3/20 11:56BST.
