British engineering firm Vesuvius suffers cyberattack
Details are emerging from the latest UK company to be hit
Vesuvius, a London-headquartered molten metal flow engineering firm, disclosed on Monday that it was "currently managing a cyber incident" that involved unauthorised access to its systems.
After discovering unauthorised activity on its networks, the company says it took required measures to respond to the issue, including shutting down all impacted systems.
Vesuvius is currently collaborating with a number of cyber experts to determine the extent and possible consequences of the event, including the impact on manufacturing and contract fulfilment.
"We are taking steps to comply with all relevant regulatory obligations in light of the information that emerges from our ongoing investigations," the company said.
Details of the incident are scant at the moment. There is no indication of the scope of the incident or which IT systems Vesuvius may have been compromised. Additionally, there is no explanation of the attack's nature or if the attackers have communicated with the company in any way.
Vesuvius is London Stock Exchange-listed firm that specialises in molten metal flow engineering and technology. It mainly serves process industries that operate in difficult high temperature conditions.
The firm creates customised solutions, such as flow control systems, advanced refractories and other consumable products, as well as technical services relating to those products, such as data capture.
Vesuvius employs over 10,000 people and is among the 250 most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange. For the fiscal year 2021, the firm reported revenue of more than £1.6 billion.
The incident is the latest in a series of cyberattacks against British organisations in recent months.
Morgan Advanced Materials Plc, a provider of speciality chemicals, announced last month it had been the victim of a cyber incident.
Also last month, a ransomware attack on the Royal Mail impacted its worldwide letter and package deliveries for many days.
Last week, a ransomware attack was launched against a major financial software provider, ION, causing severe disruption for trading in the City of London. ABN Amro Clearing and Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank, are among the many ION customers whose operations have been impacted as a result of the attack.
The LockBit ransomware gang, which claimed responsibility for ION attack, says it has received the demanded ransom. The group had earlier threatened to publish material stolen from the company if the extortion payment was not paid by 4th February.
Ransomware has emerged as one of the most costly and disruptive issues for companies worldwide in recent years.
The UK now ranks third in a list of countries where businesses suffer the most ransomware attacks, security vendor NordLocker said in a report in September.
NordLocker examined 18 sectors and found that business services suffered the highest number of ransomware attacks (10.1%), followed by education (9.7%), construction (8.9%), transportation (7.7%), manufacturing (7.3%) and public sector institutions (5.7%).
Conti and LockBit were the two most active ransomware gangs targeting the UK, claiming responsibility for 22.2% and 11.5% of attacks, respectively. They were also the most active groups worldwide.