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Some ‘key services’ of Mediaportal still down following cyber attack which cost Isentia around $8.5m

Isentia has released a market update following the cyber incident which impacted its Mediaportal service last week, saying some ‘key services’ of the business are still affected by the security incident.

The media monitoring business also estimated that the attack had an immediate impact on the company’s net profit before tax (NPBT) of $7m – $8.5m in FY21.

The company entered a trading halt last week following the incident which is thought to have been a ransomware attack, meaning its systems had been encrypted by an external party who demands payment in return for its release.

The service Isentia offers its Mediaportal clients, which includes a number of government agencies, was ‘severely compromised’, but with the help of cybersecurity experts the impact has been ‘contained’ said Isentia.

Isentia was in the process of transitioning to a new Commonwealth Bank debt facility at the time of the incident and that process has been delayed. Isentia CEO Ed Harrison said the business reacted as quickly as it could.

“Isentia responded rapidly to the cyber security attack last week, putting in place measures to support our customers and contain the impact on our systems. We are pleased to report that we are making good progress in resolving this issue, with key elements of our service being restored each day and I would like to thank our customers for their patience during this time,” said Harrison.

“Although it is difficult to fully assess the impact on FY21 pre-tax earnings, our estimate of $7-8.5m reflects remediation costs and foregone revenues from services affected by the outage. While this has obviously been a challenging period for the Company, I’m incredibly proud of our team who have worked tirelessly to support our customers and investigate the impact on our Mediaportal platform.”

Media monitoring rival Streem has been taking advantage of the outage

 

Mumbrella understands a number of government clients of Isentia have now signed up for emergency cover from other providers, including rival media monitoring outlet Streem. The Department of Agriculture, the Attorney General’s Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment and the Department of Social Services are just some of the departments that use Isentia’s services.

A number of clients expressed frustration before today’s update about the lack of communication from Isentia regarding the attack, but Mumbrella advises the company contacted its clients before updating the ASX on its circumstances.

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