The Norwegian meat giant has been subjected to a computer attack. The attack led to a temporary halt in the production of pigs, cattle and lamb. However, it doesn’t affect Christmas food, Executive Vice President Kjell Rakenes promised.
– We already ran out of Christmas food before we found out about this attack. Rakkenes tells VG that the consequences of Christmas food are minimal, if any.
The executive vice president explained that it was Nortura’s IT systems that discovered the attack on Tuesday.
Then we shut down all our IT systems and cut off access to the Internet. This means that activity in our factories and warehouses has decreased.
The company reported the attack on its website Locations Tuesday night.
According to Rakenes, all employees were required to come to work. No one has been laid off as a result of this mini-activity.
The production of chicken, turkey and eggs is almost normal. The same goes for cold cuts and sausages, he adds.
Despite the fact that Christmas food is insured, most slaughterhouses have temporarily stopped slaughtering four-legged animals such as pigs, sheep and cattle.
We have stopped all imports of four-legged animals. There are some slaughter activities in some places, especially for animals that were pushed prior to the accident. There are animals that stood in our barns.
Although there is no danger to Christmas food, Rakkenes can’t say for sure when production will return to normal levels. He does not dare to say anything about when the shelves in the stores began to collapse as a result of the production halt.
– It’s hard to say, but we hope we can maintain the activity we have today and gradually be able to get the systems up and running through Christmas. But again, here we must make all reservations, says Rakenes.
Nortura is a collaboration with about 5,000 employees, which was formed as a result of the merger of Gilde and Prior in 2006.
As a result of the attack, Nortura decided to shut down its IT systems and remove Internet access at its sites to minimize potential damage to systems and processes, they wrote in a press release.
They add that the attack reduced activity in the factories.
– We are now working on obtaining a complete overview of the situation and the extent of its occurrence, as well as developing plans to deal with the repercussions of the situation that has arisen. The priority is data security and systems stability, Nortura writes about the attack.
We have notified the police and will of course file a report, says VG Executive Vice President Rakkenes.
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