Vestas has confirmed that it was the victim of a ransomware attack on November 19, and while investigations are ongoing, the firm is largely back to normal operations.
After detecting the attack, Vestas worked diligently to shut down its IT systems to prevent any data leakage. The firm then received assistance from both internal and external partners to investigate the attack, while also working to restore activities and shore up security of its IT systems before bringing them back online.
Now, the company has said that it’s confident that its systems are back to normal operation and it has not found any indication that the event has impacted customer or supply chain operations. That means wind turbines were able to continue running as normal, although the attack will worry some stakeholders who may be concerned that future attacks could impact the ability to generate electricity.
Henrik Andersen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vestas, noted, “We have been through some tough days since we discovered the cyber incident, and Executive Management and the Board of Directors are thus very pleased that the incident didn’t impact wind turbine operations and almost all of our IT systems are running again.
“There is still a lot of work ahead of us to do and we must remain extremely diligent towards cyber threats. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers, employees and external partners for their understanding and extraordinary support in these challenging circumstances.”
While turbine operations were able to continue, the company has warned that data has been compromised. The extent of the data compromise is still being investigated, but the firm notes that it appears to foremost relate to Vestas’ internal matters, meaning external companies could be in the clear – for now.