Norway based aluminum company Norsk Hydro has released a press statement saying that it’s IT infrastructure is crippling under a ransomware attack which has affected the company operations across 40 countries.
The production-related operations have been halted in some of the units and most of the administration works are being carried out through manual operations. However, power plants are functioning normally.
Hydro’s official website has been pulled down and updates on the incident are being carried out through Facebook.
Highly placed sources say that the smelting plants in Norway were the most affected by the ransomware attack.
All the 35,000 employees working across the globe were told not to log onto their computers till early next week as the IT staff are busy cleaning up the malware.
Norsk Hydro updated in one of its Facebook posts that the malware which encrypted the data was a new variant called LockerGoga. But the news is out that the company has decided not to pay to the hackers the demanded ransom and instead chose to go for data restoration through data backups.
Eivind Kallevik, the Chief Financial Officer of Hydro said that the employees across the organization were currently accessing official emails via mobile phones and tablets.
Meanwhile, Norway’s State cybersecurity agency which was pressed into service to investigate the cyber incident said that the ransomware was introduced into the Hydro’s network on a manual note by the attacker who somehow gained authorized access to those systems.
