UC Davis Workers Affected By Kronos Cyberattack
DAVIS (CBS13) - The Dining Commons at UC Davis is being impacted by a cyberattack that could impact workers' paychecks.
The Dining Services Department uses a program called Kronos for its timecards. That company is currently being hit hard by a global ransomware attack, taking all of its services offline.
UC Davis says it means as many as 1,200 employees will not be able to submit their time cards. They're working on figuring out a plan so that the workers will still get paid.
According to a press release, the cyberattack was discovered Sunday evening, disrupting Kronos Private Cloud (KPC) services.
The attack on KPC is a ransomware attack, Kronos parent company UKG said. Officials at UKG are still working to determine "the nature and scope" of the attack.
"It's hard to say if this is a state-sponsored actor of China or Russia, just a bored kid in another country who found a script and wanted to see what happened if he pointed at something or possibly somebody who's just testing for vulnerabilities in systems like these," tech expert Ryan Ozawa said.
According to Ozawa, there are advantages and drawbacks to storing information on a cloud-based system.
"The old-school nerd in me would say the safest place for information is some place not connected to the internet, but that's not realistic," Ozawa added.
"In many cases the cloud is a preferable place to keep data and applications in part because it's replicated and accessible from anywhere rather than in a basement to get flooded and destroyed."
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