Australian Steel producer ‘BlueScope Steel Limited’ reportedly became a victim of a cyber attack on Thursday this week i.e. on May 14th, 2020. Although there is no official confirmation yet, sources from the Melbourne based Steel factory confirm that the incident was caused by a ransomware variant disrupting all production operations across the country.
Tania Archibald, the Chief Financial Officer of BlueScope did confirm that the digital production operations of the company were halted and only steel dispatching projects were continuing as normal.
Archibald told that they have taken the cyberattack seriously and have resorted to a new plan to protect and restore the systems.
Cybersecurity Insiders learned that the steel making units at Port Kembla were up and operating normally after a temporary disruption and hot strip mill will be back to work by Monday next week.
Ransomware attacks on Australian companies have increased in the past couple of months and Logistics firm Toll Group happens to be the latest victim.
Nefilim Ransomware is said to be targeting most of the firms in Australia and a confirmation is yet to be gained on whether the steelmaker BlueScope has also become a victim of the same file-encrypting and data-stealing malware.
Note- Scooped from BHP Steel in 2002 and renamed as BlueScope in Nov’03, the company is basically a steel producer with resources coming from New Zealand, Pacific Islands, America, and Asia. It is one of the renowned companies in the world which produces steel plates, automotive steels, galvanized steel, non-corrosive steel, hot rolled coils, and steel slabs and supplies it to industries such as construction companies, automotive body manufacturers, steel fabricators, and Large Infrastructure firms.
