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One of the largest payroll companies was the victim of a ransomware attack that is putting people's final paychecks of the year in jeopardy. Kronos, which handles the payroll for numerous companies, including Whole Foods, Honda, GameStop, and several hospitals, said the hack happened on Saturday and that it will take "several weeks" to recover.
The company did not say if it planned to pay the ransom and would not provide information on which of its clients were impacted by the cyberattack.
According to NBC News, several companies are working to ensure their employees get paid before Christmas.
"Whole Foods has instructed us to use a paper punch sheet to keep track of our hours & our Team Leads have been instructed to hand write the schedule, since the schedule writing system is also down," an employee told the news organization in an email.
Whole Foods said that the company has made arrangements and that employees can expect to be paid on time.
"Like many companies, Honda's timekeeping system has been impacted by the outage," Marcos Frommer, a spokesperson for Honda North America, said in an email. "The outage has resulted in a temporary disruption to our payroll reporting system. Honda is taking steps to minimize the impact to our associates. We're continuing to work closely with UKG to resolve this issue."
Officials in West Virginia are planning to use emergency funds to pay employees while Kronos works to unlock and restore its systems.