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A major ransomware cyberattack that has taken down the Norsk Hydro’s entire worldwide network, affecting operations, worldwide production, and their 35,000 employees.

Executive briefing

The situation is quite severe. Our entire worldwide network is down.

IT-systems in most business areas are impacted, and the company has switched to manual operations where possible.

There have been no personnel safety-related issues.

The company will reinstall from their backup data and will not pay the ransom.

Hydro is working to contain and neutralize the attack and is yet to know the full extent of the impact.

The attack has raised concerns across the manufacturing companies across the globe and aluminum industry in particular.

Since 2017, there has been a sharp rise in ransomware attacks on manufacturers, distributors, and industrial companies. Most of the Retail and Healthcare companies have invested heavily in their cybersecurity operations, mostly due to HIPAA and PCI-DSS compliance requirements.

Another major sectors that are ramping up their network security since 2018 are K-12& small-mid size institutes of Higher Ed, state and local governments.

Ascent InfoSec, after understanding the network, threats, and budget constraints of educational institutes, has rolled out a Cybersecurity monitoring & management package earlier this year. The leaders have taken personal interest in fostering a secured environment for our children to grow and explore. As part of this initiative, Ascent InfoSec is providing complimentary security assessment for qualifying organizations.