The Hellenic Post Office Crisis
How the Hellenic Post dealt with an unprecedented hacking attempt
On Monday the 21st of March 2022 the Greek public was stunned to find that the post offices throughout the country were essentially out of service. The frustration and curiosity were made worse by the fact that at first very little was known about the situation or when it was going to be resolved. As the day went by, the news outlets shed light into the unfortunate situation the Hellenic Post had to face, a hacking attempt of its information systems rendering all services unavailable for the time being.
It was our turn, as Crisis Management students, to analyze the actions, the communication and the general handling of the crisis, an internal one, since the Hellenic Post was in charge of the information, they set the time limit and they ensured confidentiality.
By the time the Hellenic Post became aware of the attack, a series of steps had to be taken to make sure the issue is solved, business gets back to normal -since the post is an essential service-, no sensitive information is stolen or leaked and the deadlines of payments are met.
Another important part is seeing how the Hellenic Post chose to reach out to the public and what type of information they let on. For this reason we created a timeline of communications, brought to the public via press release statements, announcements and social media posts. Taking it gradually and evaluating the situation as they went, the Hellenic Post informed of the attack and the actions taken to prevent it from spreading on Monday the 21st, while the next, more technical and detailed information was released and it was made clear which services were unavailable. On Wednesday a report on the attack let the public know that no sensitive data was breached. From Thursday the 24th the people are informed that gradually all services are functioning again.
As a general evaluation of the attack, it was estimated that the crisis could have been avoided if Hellenic Post had been equipped with a more advanced IT / Cyber Security System. The solving of the crisis might have taken a bit longer which might have caused the people to be anxious or disappointed, but we should always take into consideration the capacity and the flexibility of an organization as such when it comes to facing a crisis with so many things at stake. Given that, we could say Hellenic Post was meticulous and efficient.
Betty Tsakarestou, Mania Xenou
COLAB Team members: GeorgiannaChondrou, Angeliki Kyriazi, Despoina Fragou, Angeliki Valeri
