Update 7/3, 5 pm: The pro-Russian hacker group Stormous Group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Duvel Moortgat, as reported by the Belgian publication VRT NWS. The hackers are said to have stolen a lot of data from the brewer during the attack. If Duvel Moortgat refuses to pay, the data will be published in two weeks. Production in the largest brewery also resumed this morning.
Original 6/3, 4:14 pm: A ransomware attack affects the production of Duvel Moortgat. As a result, several beers are currently not being brewed. The brewer is already reassuring customers by assuring them that stocks are large enough to temporarily deal with this problem.
Duvel Moortgat fell victim to ransomware. The company subsequently decided to halt production of well-known beer brands such as Duvel, La Chouffe, Liefmans, De Koninck and Maredsous as a precautionary measure. Specifically, this involved four Belgian breweries and a brewery in America, where subsidiary Boulevard Brewing is located.
Data encrypted
Duvel Moortgat noticed the ransomware attack during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. “At 1:30 a.m. last night, we received notification that our servers had been hacked,” said company spokesperson Ellen Aarts. During the hack, cybercriminals encrypted data.
The brewer says it does have the necessary backups in place. Production is, therefore, expected to resume as early as this week. Furthermore, it expects no shortages and therefore, supply will not be compromised: “We still have large stocks of beer.”
Checking whether sensitive information leaked
The brewer is now investigating the exact extent of the attack. Because even if production can run again through backups, it is important to check whether the hackers were able to steal sensitive information. Duvel Moortgat can then still decide to pay a ransom so that the hackers do not publish the sensitive data. So, paying ransom to resume production appears to be unnecessary in any case. It is not known what amount of ransom is being demanded.
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