Hydro has declared that it is still too early to conclude the financial and operational impact of the situation.
Norsk Hydro, a Norway based aluminum producers and one of the largest in the world, has recently been reported to be under the grasp of a severe cyber-attack.
The attack has halted parts of Hydro’s production with the company having to shut down several metal rolled and extrusion products plants. In these plants, aluminum ingots are transformed to make components for builders, car manufacturers and other industries. The giant smelters of the company are largely operating on a manual basis.
Eivind Kallevik, CFO, Hydro, said at a press conference that the attack is an instance of a classic ransomware attack where the effects are quite severe. The company has not yet identified the hackers.
According to the Norwegian state agency in charge of cybersecurity, Norwegian National Security Authority, said that the virus used to lockdown Hydro is the LockerGoga which is a comparatively new strain of ransomware that encrypts and locks down computer files and demands payment to unlock them.
Kallevik’s own desktop computer has been locked down but he has been reported to say that the company intends to restore the systems from backup servers. It is still not known whether a specific ransom amount has been demanded by the hackers.
The attack, which began in the United States quickly escalated overnight and hit IT systems across the company which led staff to issue updates via social media. At an Oslo Stock Exchange regulatory filing Hydro has declared that it is still too early to conclude the financial and operational impact of the situation. However, according to Kallevik financial impact of the attack is limited so far.
BBC reported that that Hydro employees have been informed not to log in to their computers, and tablets and mobile phones are to be used to access emails.
Aluminum prices reached a three-month high at the London Metal Exchange as the news of the cyber-attack at Hydro was made public.
