Royal Mail International Shipments Crippled By Cyber Incident
UPDATE 1-30-23
More recovery progress has been made by Royal Mail. The latest service update shows resuming of International Tracked services to all destinations for business customers and consumers buying postage online.
As a result of this progress and the further growing capability of our alternative export solutions, we can now announce that today, Monday 30 January, we will be resuming our International Tracked services to all destinations for business customers and consumers buying postage online.
This includes parcel, large letter and letter formats of these services. Online shipping solutions will be enabled to allow customers to select these services, print labels and send items from 1200hrs today for business contract and on account customers. From 1900hrs these services will be made live for consumers who buy postage online.
Delivery of International Tracked items posted from Monday 30 January may take slightly longer than usual and customers may notice slightly different tracking information as items leave the UK.
Summary of International services which have been reinstated:
- International Tracked (from 1200hrs on 30 January for business contract and on account customers and from 1900hrs for consumers who buy postage online)
- International Tracked & Signed
- International Signed
- International Standard / Economy Letter services
- Customers in Northern Ireland are also able to submit both export letters and export parcels for all services bound for Ireland into the Royal Mail network through all channels. These services are currently only available for customers based in Northern Ireland.
Delivery of International Tracked & Signed and International Signed items posted from Thursday 26 January may take slightly longer than usual and customers may notice different tracking information as items leave the UK.
We continue to ask customers not to submit any Standard/Economy export parcels into our network just yet. We are aiming to provide further updates on these services as soon as possible.
UPDATE - 1-27-23
Royal Mail are making progress in restoring international service in the wake of ransomware attack.
Here's the latest service update:
Our focus has been on despatching the export parcels and letters which were in our network before the cyber incident. We have also been successfully despatching standard export letters since reinstating those services for customers on 18 January.
As a result of this progress and the growing capability of our alternative export solutions, we can now announce that we are resuming our International Tracked & Signed as well as International Signed services to all destinations for business account customers and customers buying postage online. This includes parcel, large letter, and letter formats of these services. Online shipping solutions are now enabled to allow customers to select these services, print labels and send items from Thursday 26 January.
Delivery of International Tracked & Signed and International Signed items posted from Thursday 26 January may take slightly longer than usual and customers may notice different tracking information as items leave the UK.
We continue to ask customers not to submit any new Tracked or Standard/Economy export parcels into our network just yet. We are aiming to provide further updates on these services in the coming days.
Import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Domestic services are unaffected.
UPDATE 1-18-22
Royal Mail says they are implementing workaround and starting to resume letter service not requiring customs forms as well as a limited amount of parcels.
Wednesday 18 January 2023
Delivery and collection services will take place across the UK today.
ROYAL MAIL INTERNATIONAL EXPORT SERVICES
Following the recent cyber incident, we are trialing operational workarounds and have started moving limited volumes of export parcels. While we trial these operational workarounds, we continue to ask customers not to submit any new export parcels into the network. Our initial focus will be to clear mail that has already been processed and is waiting to be dispatched.
We are pleased to announce that we have resumed the export of letters which do not require a customs declaration to all international destinations. From 19:00 hrs, customers will be able to start re-submitting international export letters which do not require a customs declaration into the Royal Mail network again through all channels including Royal Mail post boxes and Post Office branches.
Royal Mail continues to work with external experts, the security authorities and regulators to mitigate the impact of this cyber incident, with a focus on restoring services for export letters and parcels. Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Domestic services remain unaffected.
We apologise to impacted customers for any disruption this incident may be causing. Please be assured our teams are working around the clock to resolve this situation and we will update customers as soon as we have more information.
UPDATE 1-13-23
eBay has posted an announcement saying they encourage sellers to use alternate shipping methods and will protect sellers impacted by this cyber incident.
We are monitoring the situation closely and to mitigate any delays that may arise, time has also been added to the delivery estimates we display to international buyers whilst the carrier is remedying the situation.
Until the issue is fixed, to help ensure you are not adversely affected, please use alternative carriers such as UPS or DPD via eBay delivery powered by Packlink. You can also use eBay’s Global Shipping Programme (GSP) to send your items.
To help reduce the impact on your business, eBay will automatically protect your performance between 4 January until 16 January 2023 for items listed with Royal Mail International services including:
- Your late delivery rate, which will be removed for international transactions.
- Your “item not received” count in your Service Metrics dashboard will be removed.
- We will also remove any negative and neutral feedback relating to or arising from late or non-delivery during this period.
- As always, please upload tracking details when you dispatch an item. This helps to keep your buyers informed, and adding tracking details gives you additional protection.
Etsy has also issued a statement saying they have temporarily disabled the ability to purchase Royal Mail labels.
Due to a Royal Mail cyber incident, the ability to purchase RM export labels is temporarily unavailable and shipping internationally via this carrier should be paused.
Royal Mail experienced a cyber incident earlier this week, which has interrupted international shipments. While Royal Mail works on fixing the issue, they've requested that their customers:
- Pause sales of Royal Mail export shipping labels.
This means that until further notice, the purchase of Royal Mail shipping labels for international orders is unavailable.
- Hold on shipping internationally using Royal Mail.
If you’ve already purchased RM export shipping labels for international orders, you should wait to dispatch until the issue is resolved.
We understand this may disrupt your business operations. We’re working closely with Royal Mail to monitor the situation for our sellers and will continue to update you as we learn more. For more information, please visit Royal Mail’s website.
UPDATE 1-12-23
The BBC has confirmed the "cyber incident" is a ransomware attack being attributed to Russian criminals.
Tom Espiner & Joe TidyBBC News
Severe disruption to Royal Mail's overseas deliveries has been caused by ransomware linked to Russian criminals, the BBC has been told.
The cyber-attack has affected the computer systems Royal Mail uses to despatch deliveries abroad.
Royal Mail has been warning customers since Wednesday of disruption due to a "cyber-incident". Its latest advice is for people not to try to send international letters and parcels until the issue is resolved.
Ransomware is malicious computer software that encrypts data and locks up systems.The ransomware used in the attack is "Lockbit", according to a source close to the investigation. Computer security firms say the software has been developed and used by criminal gangs with links to Russia.
BBC cyber reporter Joe Tidy has seen a ransom note sent by the criminals to Royal Mail which reads: "Your data are stolen and encrypted'.
The ransom demand is expected to be in the millions, although sources close to the investigation say there are "workarounds" to get the system going again.
Royal Mail continues to experience fallout from yesterday's cyber incident mostly impacting outgoing international mail but also having slight impact to incoming mail as well.
BBC News
People sending items abroad with Royal Mail have been warned there is no end in sight to delivery disruption after the firm was hit by a "cyber incident" on Thursday.
The firm is still unable to send letters and parcels overseas and says it is "working hard" to fix the issue.
There are also minor delays to post coming into the UK, but domestic deliveries are unaffected.
Royal Mail apologised again and vowed to update people as soon as possible.
It said that some customers who had posted items abroad even before the "incident" might see delays.
The company is calling it a "cyber-incident" rather than a cyber attack because the problem is still under investigation, the BBC has been told.
A National Crime Agency spokesperson said it was "aware of an incident impacting Royal Mail" and was working alongside the National Cyber Security Centre - which is part of the UK's cyber intelligence agency GCHQ - to understand its impact.
The back office system that has been affected is used by Royal Mail to prepare mail for despatch abroad, and to track and trace overseas items.
It is in use at six sites, including Royal Mail's huge Heathrow distribution centre in Slough, as well as its Bristol site.
Onlin sellers are anxiously awaiting updates from marketplaces about what, if any, protections will be provided for late shipments due to this issue.
eBay has made no official announcement yet and sellers in the UK community are looking for answers.
Royal Mail have reportedly said there is no end in sight to the disruption caused by yesterday's "cyber incident" - and yet there has been neither an announcement by eBay nor any response from the Community Team to my tagging at 07:32 this morning (qv Post 2 above).
Sellers who are likely to be heavily impacted by this issue - not least by being forced to refund buyers through INR cases as a result of it - deserve at least some sort of acknowledgement. Is anyone at eBay even aware of the problem or is it just being ignored?
All my items are different sizes, weights etc and have different shipping charges over 4 world zones. I think (but not sure) changing to No International Postage would lose permanently all the international shipping rates from every listing. Probably better to block countries, continents en masse, this way I think it will retain the shipping values but they should re-appear when unblocked.
Some assistance or advice from eBay would be appreciated.
Meanwhile over in the Etsy community, sellers say they've been asked to continue fulfilling orders as normal, but since that's obviously not possible for some sellers, they're also swapping advice for putting stores on vacation mode or updating shipping profiles and extending ship by dates.
I have just had a word with Etsy on the Online Chat to make sure they are aware that this will be affecting UK sellers.
This is the response:
Hi Lydia, we are now monitoring the issue and please continue fulfilling orders as usual. Also you can adjust the ship by date for up to 21 days.
At least it looks like they are aware of the situation!
"please continue fulfilling orders as usual" sounds like bad advice, that is not the message from Royal Mail and Etsy wont remove the one star reviews when it does not arrive or is one day late and they auto refund the buyer.
If you've been impacted by the Royal Mail cyber incident, let us know in the comments below!
