Norwegian recycling and mining multinational Tomra has revealed that some “data systems” were directly affected by a “massive” cyberattack.
In a brief statement, the company said it discovered the breach on the morning of July 16th.
“We quickly disconnected some systems to contain the attack.Tomra is currently evaluating whether customers and employees may experience reduced stability of our service. Our main focus now is to get all systems back up and running as soon as possible.”
“Tomra remains transparent with all stakeholders and will continue to provide updates as we confirm information to be shared.”
The company has already notified relevant authorities and mobilized all resources to “contain and neutralize the incident,” it added.
For more information on attacks on Norwegian companies, Norsk Hydro has admitted that the ransomware cost may have reached $41 million.
Yesterday’s update claimed that the attack had a “limited impact” on customers’ operations.
“Most of Tomra’s digital services are designed to operate offline for a period of time, during which time functionality may be degraded,” the report said. “The team works to establish temporary solutions for all digital systems to help keep our customers’ solutions operational for the long term.”
As such, the company said its food and recycling businesses are operating “as usual” but with limited functionality as its digital services are offline.
The company’s Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) operate online in Australia and North America, but remain mostly offline in Europe and Asia.
However, Tomra’s internal IT and back-office apps are offline, impacting supply chain management.
“Major office locations are offline and employees are being asked to work remotely,” he added.
The Asker-based company announced record quarterly revenue of over $345 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Rob Bolton, vice president of EMEA at Versa Networks, argued that service interruptions are a common tactic to extort money from critical infrastructure and supply chain organizations.
“One of the benefits of an attack on Tomra is the rapid response to stop the attack and mitigate its effects,” he added.
“All organizations should have measures and controls in place to stop cyber-attacks as soon as they are identified. For example, network segmentation helps security teams quickly identify malware and limit its movement. and ultimately mitigate the potential impact of an attack.”
