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Nordic Metals Giant Restarts Some Systems After Ransomware Attack

Nordic Metals Giant Restarts Some Systems After Ransomware Attack

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Norsk Hydro ASA said it made progress in securing its computer systems after the Norwegian aluminum maker was hit by a ransomware cyber attack.

The company plans to restart overnight some systems in divisions that make finished metal, which should help it continue deliveries to customers. It has detected the “root cause” of the attack, but doesn’t know how long it would take to restore stable computer systems.

“We are optimistic that we will be able to produce and deliver as planned,” Chief Financial Officer Eivind Kallevik said in Oslo Wednesday, adding that it’s still too early to estimate the operational or financial impact. “So far we have no indication that we are losing business.”

The Norwegian police said it has opened an investigation into the attack, which began in the early hours of Tuesday and forced one of the world’s top aluminum makers to shut down several automated product lines and switch smelters to manual mode. Hydro said yesterday that it didn’t know the identity of the hackers and believes the attack originated in the U.S. The shares recovered after yesterday’s losses, edging higher by 1.1 percent by 2:50 p.m. in Oslo.

The attack is the latest to hit the commodities sector, where disruptions can quickly cascade down the supply chain. Prior to Norsk Hydro, companies from zinc smelter Nyrstar NV to Saudi and Russian oil giants Aramco and Rosneft PJSC, shipping company AP Moller-Maersk A/S and agriculture trader Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. had been also hit by cyber attacks.

Kallevik reiterated the company hasn’t received demands for any specific amount and no ransom has been paid. He added that the company has “good and strong” cyber insurance in place, which covers business interruptions, while declining to elaborate further.

Hydro had stopped several plants in its rolled products and extruded solutions divisions in Europe and the U.S. after the attack, citing lack of ability to connect to production systems and customs’ data. The company plans to bring some of those systems back overnight, restarting the operations yet “probably with some more manual work compared to what we otherwise would have,” Kallevik said.

Hydro is a leading supplier of aluminum products in North American and European markets, providing specialized parts to industrial customers. It has more than a dozen aluminum facilities in Europe, from Norway to the U.K., including those producing primary metal or using aluminum extrusion. The company’s market share in the extrusion segment is around 20 percent in Europe and 23 percent in North America.

--With assistance from Jonas Bergman, Mark Burton and Elena Mazneva.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sveinung Sleire in Oslo at ssleire1@bloomberg.net;Jonas Cho Walsgard in Oslo at jchowalsgard@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net, Lynn Thomasson, Dylan Griffiths

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