Royal Mail ‘experiencing severe service disruption’ following ‘cyber incident’

Royal Mail, the British postage and courier company, announced on Wednesday it was "experiencing severe service disruption" following a "cyber incident."

The nature of the incident has not been disclosed but the company said its teams “are working around the clock to resolve this disruption and we will update you as soon as we have more information.”

The disruption is limited to Royal Mail’s international export services but has left it "temporarily unable to despatch items to overseas destinations."

It warned customers not to attempt to post anything abroad while it resolves the issue, although it did not offer an estimate for how long resolving the issue would take.

Items that have already been posted “may be subject to delays,” the company warned.

“We would like to sincerely apologize to impacted customers for any disruption this incident is causing.”

Royal Mail is considered to have been founded by Henry VIII in 1516. It was state-owned in various forms until being privatized in 2013.

Today the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and recorded revenues of just over £12.6 billion ($15.2 billion) in 2021.

It had been part of the FTSE 100 until last year, when it was demoted to the FTSE 250 - a group comprising the 250 most valuable companies listed on the LSE by market capitalization outside of the top 100.

Royal Mail said its import and other services are continuing "with some minor delays."

The company said it “immediately launched an investigation into the incident” and had brought in external experts to assist.

“We have reported the incident to our regulators and the relevant security authorities,” added Royal Mail.

A spokesperson for the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said: “We are aware of an incident affecting Royal Mail Group Ltd and are working with the company, alongside the National Crime Agency, to fully understand the impact.”