Ransomware attack on wool industry halted sales across Australia last week

Last Tuesday Talman Software, which is used by the majority of wool industry across Australia and New Zealand, was the victim of a ransomware attack.

The attack prevented brokers from being able to buy and sell wool.

Alistair Calvert, co-director of Tasmanian wool broker Wool Solutions, said the "unprecedented attack" had disrupted planned sales on Thursday.

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"We have taken the view where we have basically just transferred our catalogue from last week into this week coming, so basically it has delayed us by a week," he said.

Mr Calvert said it was yet to be seen how a larger quantity of wool on the market could impact prices.

A sale scheduled for Tuesday in Melbourne has been postponed to Wednesday and Thursday, while Talman work on restoring the system.

Roberts Limited state wool manager Stewart Raine said so far none of their growers had been affected.

He said this week's sale would be larger than what was usually scheduled because they will be selling two weeks worth of wool.

"Potentially prices could be affected, but we are hearing that there is good demand," he said.

Australian Wool Exchange chief executive Mark Graves said there were lessons to be learned from the cyber attack.

"There are always things to learn from this because this can affect anyone," he said.

"It doesn't matter if it is this particular company, individuals or any other corporation, we see increases in virus attacks all the time.

"I think there is always something to learn from it but we will have to do that in reflection."

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