Kronos Ransomware attack
The ransomware attack disrupted the financial operations of many large companies.
This has led some workers to worry that it might affect their last paycheck before the holiday due to their payroll provider Kronos, the person handling the ransom.
The accident affected entire cities and states trying to devise a plan to take out their workers' paychecks.
And it can affect HR operations at organizations like the New York City Metro Transit Authority, Honda, GameStop, and more.
An employee at One Whole Foods told NBC News that employees had to use "a perforated sheet to keep track of our hours."
What is Kronos?
Kronos Private Cloud is a suite of HR software operated by a company called Ultimate Kronos Group or UKG.
At first, Kronos didn't reveal how severe the problem actually was: The company was later informed that its hosted versions of Workforce Central, TeleStaff, and other services were not available, and said it had no estimate of when they would be back online.
UKG recommended its clients "evaluate alternative plans for processing time and attendance data for payroll processing", and UKG quickly revealed that the problem was deeper than a service disruption: the company said it was the victim of a ransomware attack that could take several weeks to fully restore system availability.
She also said that her "Backups are currently unavailable", which is the biggest disaster.
UKG's client list includes some huge names including Tesla, GameStop, Honda, Sainsbury's, Puma, YMCA, MGM Resorts, the City of Denver and the New York City Metro Transit Authority. Medical facilities were also reported to have been affected by the EMS system in Honolulu and the Water Supply Board that used Cronos, along with San Angelo and Shannon Medical Center in Texas and more.
Some companies have promised to take out their paychecks, despite the turmoil. According to NBC News, Whole Foods said it will be able to pay its employees Friday, West Virginia said it has already processed paychecks for December 17, and is coming up with a plan to pay workers on the 31st. The city of Cleveland has reportedly said employees will continue to get paid, though it said some of them may put their names, addresses and partial Social Security numbers at risk.
However, anonymous sources told ZDNet that some companies will lose payroll for this week. A post on the Sysadmin subreddit offers some ideas as to why, with one person describing the incredible effort they go into calculating employee hours and producing and mailing checks without UKG services.