Chemical firms hit by cyberattacks

Abstract

When hackers gain access to company networks, major real-world disruptions can ensue, as the recent ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline showed. Chemical companies are not immune. Recent cyberattacks on Siegfried, Brenntag, and Symrise forced temporary halts in manufacturing and other operations while the firms investigated the breaches. The drug ingredient manufacturer Siegfried says it detected a malware attack May 21. In response, the Swiss company shut down production at multiple sites, cut off network connections, and scoured its information technology systems. Among other things, Siegfried packages the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. And just days after the May 7 attack on Colonial by DarkSide, information security experts reported that the chemical distributor Brenntag had also been a DarkSide victim. Lawrence Abrams, a malware specialist, wrote on the news site Bleepingcomputer.com that Brenntag had paid DarkSide a $4.4 million ransom in bitcoins to access company files that the hackers had encrypted and to