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After the attack late on Monday, the company had to shut several
plants that transform aluminum ingots into components for car
makers, builders and other industries, while its smelters in
Norway were largely operating on a manual basis.
"Hydro still does not have the full overview of the timeline
toward normal operations, and it is still (too) early to
estimate the exact operational and financial impact," the
company said in a statement.
But Hydro said its technical team, with external support, had
detected the root cause of the problems and was working to
restart the company's IT systems.
"Progress has been made, with the expectation to restart certain
systems during Wednesday, which would allow for continued
deliveries to customers," Hydro said of its Extruded Solutions
unit as well as of Rolled Products.
The two divisions are key to the company's downstream operation,
serving a range of industries with bespoke aluminum components,
as well as metal sheets used for packaging, transport and
construction.
The Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM), the state
agency in charge of cybersecurity, said the attack used a virus
known as LockerGoga, a relatively new strain of so-called
ransomware, which encrypts computer files and demands payment to
unlock them.
The LockerGoga malware is not widely used by cyber crime groups,
cyber security researchers said, but has been linked to an
attack on French engineering consultancy Altran Technologies in
January.
Hydro said on Tuesday it did not plan to pay the hackers to
restore files and would instead seek to restore its systems from
backup servers.
There were no signs of similar attacks on other Norwegian
companies or public institutions, according to NorCERT, a unit
of the NSM handling cyber attacks.
"It's an isolated event," NorCERT head Haakon Bergsjoe told
Reuters.
The attack began in the United States on Monday evening and
escalated into Tuesday, hitting IT systems across most of the
company's activities and forcing staff to issue updates via
social media.
The company also posted notes at the entrance to its
headquarters, instructing employees not to log their computers
onto its networks.
Norsk Hydro's shares rebounded on Wednesday, trading 1.0 percent
higher at 1005 GMT, compared with a 0.1 percent fall in the Oslo
benchmark index. The price of aluminum fell 0.1 percent on the
London Metal Exchange.
Companies and governments have become increasingly concerned
about the damage hackers can cause to industrial systems and
critical national infrastructure following a number of
high-profile cyber attacks.
In 2017, hackers later accused by the United States of working
for the North Korean government unleashed billions of dollars of
damage with the Wannacry ransomware virus, which crippled
hospitals, banks and other companies worldwide.
Pyongyang has denied the allegations.
Other cyber attacks have downed electricity grids and transport
systems in recent years, and an attack on Italian oil services
firm Saipem late last year destroyed more than 300 of the
company's computers.
Hydro, which has 36,000 employees in 40 countries, made a net
profit of 4.3 billion Norwegian crowns ($505 million) last year
on sales of 159.4 billion.
(Additional reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Dale Hudson
and Elaine Hardcastle)
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