Arla Foods confirms cyberattack disrupts production, causes delays

Arla Foods has confirmed to BleepingComputer that it was targeted by a cyberattack that has disrupted its production operations.

The Danish food giant clarified that the attack only affected its production unit in Upahl, Germany, though it expects this will result in product delivery delays or even cancellations.

"We can confirm that we have identified suspicious activity at our dairy site in Upahl that impacted the local IT network," stated an Arla spokesperson.

"Due to the safety measures initiated as a result of the incident, production was temporarily affected."

Arla Foods is an international dairy producer and a farmer-owned cooperative with 7,600 members. It employs 23,000 people in 39 countries. 

The firm has an annual revenue of €13.8 billion ($15.5 billion), and its products, including the brands Arla, Lurpak, Puck, Castello, and Starbucks, are sold in 140 countries worldwide.

The company told BleepingComputer that it is currently working to resume operations at the impacted facility, which should bring results before the end of the week.

"Since then, we've been working diligently to restore full operations. We expect to return to normal operations at the site in the next few days. Production at other Arla sites is not affected."

Considering that the first reports about a disruption at Arla's production operations surfaced on Friday, it is bound to cause shortages in some cases.

"We have informed our affected customers about possible delivery delays and cancellations," explained Arla's spokesperson.

BleepingComputer has asked the firm if the attack involved data theft or encryption, both staples of a ransomware attack, but Arla declined to share any additional information at this time.

Meanwhile, there have been no announcements about Arla on ransomware extortion portals, so the type of attack and the perpetrators remain unknown.