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Norsk Hydro, one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, revealed today that it « became victim of an extensive cyber-attack » that crippled some of its infrastructure and forced it to switch to manual operations in some smelting locations. The cyber-attack was later identified as an infection with the LockerGoga ransomware strain, the company said during a press conference.
News of the cyber-attack broke earlier this morning in a message the company sent to investors and stock exchanges.
« Hydro became victim of an extensive cyber-attack in the early hours of Tuesday (CET), impacting operations in several of the company’s business areas, » the company said. « IT-systems in most business areas are impacted and Hydro is switching to manual operations as far as possible. »
In a subsequent update posted on the company’s Facebook page, Norsk Hydro said the cyber-attack did not impact « people safety » and that smelting plants across its vast international network were « running normally on isolated IT systems, » although in a manual mode, without the aid of its computer controlled systems.
In a press conference that took place later in the afternoon, the company confirmed that the attack was caused by a ransomware infection. The company said the ransomware was planted on its network in late Monday evening, CET, and that its staff noticed the infection around midnight.
« Let me be clear! The situation for Hydro through this is quite severe. The entire worldwide network is down, affecting our production and our office operations, » the company said during the press release. « There is a lack of ability to connect to production systems, causing some production challenges and temporary stoppages at several plants. »
The company said it plans to restore impacted systems using backups.
