Carnival discloses ransomware attack

In an SEC filing yesterday, cruise giant Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) disclosed that on August 15 it had detected a ransomware attack that accessed and encrypted a portion of one of its brand’s information technology systems.

“The unauthorized access also included the download of certain of our data files,” said the filing.”

Carnival says that promptly upon its detection of the security event, it launched an investigation and notified law enforcement, and engaged legal counsel and other incident response professionals.

“While the investigation of the incident is ongoing, the company has implemented a series of containment and remediation measures to address this situation and reinforce the security of its information technology systems,” say Carnival, noting that it is “working with industry-leading cybersecurity firms to immediately respond to the threat, defend the company’s information technology systems, and conduct remediation.”

“Based on its preliminary assessment and on the information currently known (in particular, that the incident occurred in a portion of a brand’s information technology systems), the company does not believe the incident will have a material impact on its business, operations or financial results,” says Carnival. “Nonetheless, we expect that the security event included unauthorized access to personal data of guests and employees, which may result in potential claims from guests, employees, shareholders, or regulatory agencies. Although we believe that no other information technology systems of the other company’s brands have been impacted by this incident based upon our investigation to date, there can be no assurance that other information technology systems of the other company’s brands will not be adversely affected.”