News Insights: Big Norwegian Aluminum Producer Norsk Hydro Suffers Major Ransomware Attack

News Insights

According Terry Ray, SVP and Imperva Fellow, “While the source of this attack has not been identified, local media in Norway have reported that the attack is likely due to a relatively new form of ransomware known as LockerGoga. As is the case with any ransomware attack, there is no guarantee that if you pay the ransom your data will be recovered.

Planning ahead and being prepared for attacks will make organizations more resilient and able to cope if the worst should ever happen. However, the reality is that the odds are in the attacker’s favor, and a lot of times, like this incident, they are successful in their intrusions.

Hydro’s next steps will be critical in determining the extent of impact this attack has on the company’s databases, files and cloud applications. The company should focus primarily on identifying and quarantining impacted users, devices and systems so as to control the data breach proactively.

Having a strategy that takes into account what happens when a cyberattack occurs, whether it’s ransomware or another method, is essential to resiliency, especially in industries where information is critical and downtime can have significant global impact.

Attacks such as this one bring to light the importance of protecting your data. Organizations – no matter the size or industry – should have robust technology solutions in place that are able to sense ransomware file access and curb potential attacks before they take place, so access and downtime can be limited.

Furthermore, all businesses should consider that most attacks are not targeted at a single business, but are instead crimes of opportunity and as such, can happen to anyone.  It’s often said by companies, “Why would anyone attack me, I don’t have anything important to anyone?”.  Let’s remember, value takes many forms, sometimes it can be something valuable or critical to your business like this case, other times it’s something un-important to your business, but valuable to the public or the attacker, or simply something that can be monetized.”