Coca-Cola Suspends US Fairlife Production Due to Ransomware Attack
American soft drinks giant Coca-Cola announced Thursday that it has suspended production at its subsidiary Fairlife after detecting a ransomware attack.
Based in Chicago, Fairlife is a Coca-Cola wholly owned dairy company that distributes ultra-filtered milk in five flavors: chocolate, fat-free, reduced fat, strawberry, and whole milk.
In a July 16 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Coca-Cola said hackers had accessed a portion of Fairlife’s systems, including production-related systems.
“After detecting the issue, the Company promptly activated its incident response and business continuity protocols. The Company’s investigation and assessment of the impact of the incident is ongoing, with the assistance of outside advisors and cybersecurity experts,” Coca-Cola said.
The company told the SEC it has notified law enforcement of the attack and that it has yet to determine the full scope, nature, and impact of the incident.
“Product quality and safety have not been impacted. However, as a result of the incident, production operations at Fairlife in the United States are temporarily suspended. Fairlife’s Canada production operations are not currently impacted,” the company said.
Coca-Cola said it is scrambling to complete its investigation into the attack and to determine whether the incident will have any material impact.
The company has not shared details on how the incident occurred, who was behind it, or whether it has received any extortion demands from the attackers. SecurityWeek has emailed Coca-Cola for additional information and will update this article if the company responds.
SecurityWeek has not seen any known ransomware groups claim responsibility for the incident.
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