After a first cyberattack on June 5 (inside.beer, 12.6.2020), Lion, one of the leading brewing groups in Australia and New Zealand, been attacked a second time, Chief Executive Officer Stuart Irvine informed duringan all-staff meeting on Thursday. Hackers demanded a ransom of reportedly AUD 1.16 million (USD 800,000). While Lion Brewery and Little Creatures have resumed production still not every system is fully working. “While our service is still not at our expected levels, we are doing our very best to resume normal operations, “the company said today.
Lion is now focusing on defense efforts over restoration from the previous attack and new controls and technology are now in place to prevent further attacks.
While hackers in most of the cases not only lock up a company's files and cripple its IT systems, they will often leak files on the dark web in small amounts as a bargaining tactic if a victim does not pay by the deadline.
Today, the company confirmed this and gave a new update on its website saying that “there have been reports of Lion document lists posted online in recent days. Given this development, our expert teams are doing all they can to investigate whether any data has been removed from our system. Unfortunately, based on the experience of others in this situation, it is possible this may have occurred.
“It’s important to reinforce that while this attack has had an impact on our operations, we are still brewing beer and manufacturing our dairy and drinks brands, and we’ve managed to keep shipping products to many of our customers. Despite experiencing some setbacks over the last 24 hours, which is consistent with this kind of cyber-attack, our team of local and international experts are working hard to safely restore our systems and further improve our defences.”
