Norsk Hydro production affected by cyber attack on US and European operations

Industrial systems of Norwegian aluminium producer targeted in cyber attack

Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro claims that a cyber attack today has affected operations across a number of the company's business areas.

The admission was made today in a regulatory announcement.

"IT-systems in most business areas are impacted and Hydro is switching to manual operations as far as possible. Hydro is working to contain and neutralize the attack, but does not yet know the full extent of the situation," the company claimed in the statement.

The attack is believed to be the work of environmental activists related to allegations that the company's operations in Brazil caused environmental damage. Authorities in Brazil claim that the company's mining operations caused contamination to water in the Para River following heavy rainfall. Norsk Hydro has denied the allegations, but was forced to cut production at its Alunorte mining facilities in Brazil.

News of the cyber attack sent the company's shares down by almost three per cent, according to Reuters, while aluminium prices on global spot markets have edged up by just over one per cent.

^{Even the company's website has been taken down as a result of the cyber attack}

It adds that the company was forced to shut down several metal extrusion plants, making components for vehicle manufacturers, the construction industry and many other industries. Smelters in Norway, Qatar and Brazil have been switched to manual operations.

Conjecture online has suggested that environmental activists are behind the attack, although the Norwegian government also claimed just this week that Russia had been behind disruption to GPS signals during recent NATO exercises. The disruption also affected civilian air traffic in and around the Arctic region.

The attacks are almost certainly targeted. Finnish security software firm F-Secure claims that 86 per cent of cyber attacks in the manufacturing sector are targeted, with 66 per cent featuring hacking. Almost half also involve the theft of intellectual property, with 53 per cent perpetrated by state-affiliated actors, and 35 per cent by organised crime.

Aluminium requires vast amounts of electricity in the production process, refining the metal from its bauxite raw material. That, however, is why it is typically produced in places offering low-cost renewable energy, such as Iceland, Norway and Russia. Iceland, of course, offers geothermal energy, while Norway and Russia use hydro-electric power.

Once refined, however, aluminium is highly environmentally friendly: it is lightweight, it doesn't rust and it can easily and relatively cheaply be recycled.