using alternative processes for payroll, timekeeping and other vital services. They are concerned about their jobs and did not want to be publicly identified. As noted at the time of the ransomware attack, notable Kronos customers include Tesla Inc., Marriott International Inc., Yamaha Corp . Emails sent by Kronos to its corporate customers, seen by The Register, confirm the firm has pulled its . For assistance with WJXTs or WCWJ's FCC public inspection file, call (904) 393-9801. GWs payroll department will subsequently reconcile the data to ensure employees are paid appropriately. **Is this issue related to the Log4j vulnerability? However, due to the malicious nature of this incident, we are determining the best approach to safely and securely handle restoration of the affected services. As a result of the attack, employers across a swath of industries experienced a weekslong outage affecting both timekeeping and payroll. ", "It was certainly the most notable and recent example of [ransomware] causing some challenges for the HR team," said Allie Mellen, security infrastructure and operations analyst at Forrester, who added that the incident likely will not be the last of its kind. The resulting outage sent HR teams scrambling for contingencies. Vendor contracts are typically written with an eye toward data security issues. We are proven, experienced, employee-focused attorneys representing workers across the United States in all types of workplace disputes. On Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, UKG, the parent company of workforce management platform Kronos, notified clients using its Kronos Private Cloud product of a "ransomware incident." Because Melgar oversees UMass' finance and IT departments, the outage directly affected areas of the company under his leadership. Jennifer Waugh, The Morning Show anchor, I-Team reporter. Kronos outage update We are reaching out with an update regarding the cybersecurity incident that has disrupted the Kronos Private Cloud. "There's no vendor on the market that has the same capabilities that Kronos has for timekeeping, and we would have to train so many people," Pemberton said. ET, Presented by studioID and Express Employment Professionals, How to manage employee communication in the hybrid era, Inside the rapidly changing world of benefits. "And so I needed to know, are you going to have a system up? Please purchase a SHRM membership before saving bookmarks. You could have a bonus for shifts. Then, adding insult to injury, timekeeping and payroll went down for many. **UKG employs a variety of redundant systems and disaster recovery protocols. SHRM Employment Law & Compliance Conference, Concerns Linger Following UKG Ransomware Attack, New OSHA Guidance Clarifies Return-to-Work Expectations, Trump Suspends New H-1B Visas Through 2020, Faking COVID-19 Illness Can Have Serious Consequences, Automate HR reporting and analytics with Employee Cycle, Turning to Virtual CISO Services to Ease the Cybersecurity Talent Crunch, Why You Cant Find a Chief Information Security Officer. We will keep you updated as new information becomes available. "You can allocate certain responsibility and liability via contract, but data ownersthe vendor's clientincreasingly are not able to fully contract around their data security obligations because there is an expectation from regulators that the client will conduct proper, documented due diligence on the data security practices of the vendor," Bahar said. Kronos has reported on its status update page that those affected by the ransomware attack can expect to hear from a company agent who will assist them directly in restoring services between January 3rd and January 7th. They were basically bricks for two months. Cybersecurity Dive contacted UKG, Tesla, PepsiCo and the MTA asking for comment on the attack and the lawsuits. We recommend that all KRONOS and KRONOS X users update to version 3.1.0. AUSTIN (KXAN) Problems still linger for some organizations weeks after Kronos fell victim to a ransomware attack. Mellen said the UKG attack holds lessons for other HR vendors in fortifying backup systems so they can get back online faster. said Sergio Melgar, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the health system. else if(currentUrl.indexOf("/about-shrm/pages/shrm-mena.aspx") > -1) { . "At that point, I knew we could pay people because we actually went ahead and did the effectively cloned payrolls on the 16th. UMass' immediate attention turned to payroll processing for the payroll period ending Dec. 11, the day before UKG's disclosure. Let HR Dive's free newsletter keep you informed, straight from your inbox. "It didn't necessarily mean anything that the system was down. ", "There's some employees that still believe that there's a problem, or that we failed them.". **Please open a case in the UKG Kronos Community by visiting https://community.kronos.com. Meanwhile, Massachusetts-based grocery store chain Stop & Shop also implemented an "alternative process" for pay and scheduling when its Kronos time entry system went down, said Caroline Medeiros, external communications manager; "Making sure our associates are paid on time and accurately continues to be a top priority. In light of the global pandemic, we had specialist teams dedicated to healthcare, first responders, and similar customers. "There's some employees that still believe that there's a problem, or that we failed them," Melgar said. 'Hopefully it would be up in short order', Melgar's team first became aware of the attack on. Though we dont have a timetable for when the system will be back up and running, we are working on a temporary time-keeping solution that will help us capture actual hours worked, to help pay our associates accurately, allowing us to transition from paying associates an estimated average, while Kronos remains unavailable.. The employee said she spoke to human resources about her issue. It lasted one week for the companies to resume using it, and some went up to one month. **How can I get support during this time? "It's natural [that] people were looking inward and thought, 'Why aren't you doing something different?' Their paycheck is still wrong, they told the I-TEAM. . The reconciliation will include a review of actual hours worked, overtime and any shift differential pay, officials said. YARMOUTH, MaineMaineHealth and Hannaford, two of Maine's largest employers, were recently affected by a ransomware attack on Kronos, a Massachusetts-based human resources firm that helps companies around the world manage their payrolls and track employee time and attendance. A message from Human Resources: The outage of our Kronos time and leave system which was caused by a ransomware attack in December has been resolved, and the system will be available again starting tomorrow Feb. 1. The process took some two to three years to complete, Melgar said, and it involved heavy collaboration between the organization's IT, HR and finance departments. To: Kronos Users. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Do I starve for two weeks or do I pay my mortgage?. For UMass Memorial Health, one of the largest health systems in Massachusetts, the outage had an immediate impact. **While we currently have no indication that there is, we are investigating whether or not there is any relationship between the security incident described above and the Log4j vulnerability. Baptist Health executive director Cindy Hamilton said that the hospital can write its employees a check if they are owed a substantial amount of money due to an error caused by the ransomware attack. Patrick Thibodeau covers HCM and ERP technologies for TechTarget. And if you don't have the data, you cannot calculate it.". Kronos was on the phone with UMass' IT department that same day. Kronos announced a ransomware attack on its cloud systems on Dec. 13, 2021. "We were making decisions that, in retrospect, I think would be considered the best option given the difficult situation we were in. If your company uses Kronos, you might not be able to use it to clock in and out of work - for a few . Four of its core applications are now unavailable to customers after the "private cloud" IT environment in which they run was breached and then locked with ransomware December 11. What does antisemitic discrimination look like at work? Some went more than a month using alternative processes for payroll, timekeeping and other vital services. Please note that all such forms and policies should be reviewed by your legal counsel for compliance with applicable law, and should be modified to suit your organizations culture, industry, and practices. ", Senior HRIS Analyst, MHI Shared Services Americas. OhioHealth managed to get paychecks out, but as one employee showed NBC4, her unique circumstance highlights a major issue in her employees backup plan. "Let's say, if there were 2,000 clients, I'm pretty confident that we were within the first 10 that got their system back. **What happened? . To our knowledge, the information we have in our Kronos-hosted application does not include sensitive personally identifiable information, said an initial statement from OhioHealth regarding the ransomware attack. Kronos' work management software is used by dozens of major corporations, local governments, and enterprises, including: the City of Cleveland's government, Tesla, Temple University, Winthrop . While AI technology can revolutionize work and improve efficiency, its important to make sure it doesnt perpetuate discrimination, the EEOC vice chair said. Roughly one-third of UMass workers are classified as exempt employees, he said. This update may be installed on any KRONOS, regardless of the currently installed system version; it is not necessary to install intermediate upgrades first. Subscribe to the HR Dive free daily newsletter, Subscribe to HR Dive for top news, trends & analysis, The free newsletter covering the top industry headlines, Sergio Melgar, executive vice president and chief financial officer, UMass Memorial Health, Permission granted by UMass Memorial Health. Your session has expired. A more significant long-term takeaway may be that employers need to have their own plan to recover payroll data in the event of a similar incident, according to Pemberton. Katie Babcock. I mean, I dont know what to do, she said. The OhioHealth employee explained that hourly workers received the average of the last three pay periods prior to the attack.
