A second drinks supplier has been hit by a ransomware attack, with Brown-Forman revealing that some information, including its employee data, may have been impacted.
The company, which is based in Kentucky, said in a statement that it was able to prevent its systems from being encrypted during the cyber attack.
Ransomware attacks typically see hackers encrypt a company’s files and demand a payment to unlock the files. In some instances, hacker groups post snippets of stolen files on websites or send them to the media to pressure companies to pay.
REvil ransomware operators announced on Friday that they had compromised Brown-Forman’s computer network and alleged they had spent more than a month examining user services, cloud data storage, and general structure.
However, Brown-Forman said it detected the attack and stopped it before data was locked.
“We are working closely with law enforcement, as well as world class third-party data security experts, to mitigate and resolve this situation as soon as possible,” the company said. “There are no active negotiations.”
Second drinks ransomware attack
It follows Australia’s Lion Co suffering a cyber attack in June. ITWire said REvil Windows ransomware was responsible for the issues and suggested data misuse had resulted from the attack on the brewer.
“The timing of this attack – just as the hospitality industry is trying to get back on its feet post COVID-19 closures – could not have been more challenging for Lion and our industry partners,” Lion noted.
“As we progress our recovery efforts, it is our number one priority to get back to our usual high standards of service levels before this cyber attack, and support our many valued business partners in what we hope will be a better second half of 2020.
“To date, we still do not have evidence of any data being removed. As we indicated last week, it remains a real possibility that data held on our systems may be disclosed in the future. Unfortunately, this is consistent with these types of ransomware attacks.”
Lion also warned: “We remind everyone to be vigilant about cyber safety, particularly in terms of telephone, SMS, email and social media phishing scams requesting personal information or payment of money. Never open attachments from unknown senders, and always check that any email is legitimate before responding.”
