A weak password allowed hackers to take down a 158-year-old company and put 700 people out of work

Hackers managed to gain access to the computer system by guessing an employee's password, after which they encrypted the company's data and locked down its internal systems, the BBC reports .

KNP CEO Paul Abbott says he didn't tell the employee that his compromised password likely led to the company's downfall. "Would you want to know if it was you?" he asks.

The company said its IT system meets industry standards and it has taken out insurance against cyberattacks.

But the Akira hacking group infiltrated the system, leaving staff without access to any data they needed to run their business. The only way to get the data back, the hackers said, was to pay.

“If you are reading this, it means that your company’s internal infrastructure is completely or partially dead… Let’s keep all the tears and resentment to ourselves and try to build a constructive dialogue,” the ransom demand message reads.

The hackers did not name a price, but a specialist ransomware negotiation firm estimated the sum could be as high as £5m. KNP did not have that kind of money. In the end, all the data was lost and the company went bankrupt.

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