Norsk Hydro estimates March cyber attack cost at $50 Million

Aluminum producer Norsk Hydro estimated the cost of the massive attack cyber attack targeting the company in March at around $50 million.

How much cost a security breach? I can tell you that potential damages could be very expensive for companies, for example, the transportation giant Maersk announced in 2017 that it would incur hundreds of millions in U.S. Dollar losses due to the NotPetya ransomware massive attack.

Back to nowadays, in mid-March Global aluminum producer Norsk Hydro was hit by a “massive” cyber attack that impacted operations in several of the company’s business areas across Europe and the U.S.

The news of the cyber attack had an immediate economic impact and caused a drop in the share price of 2.0 percent in early trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange. In just one week after the ransomware attack, the company declared it had more than $40 million losses.

The company postponed the publication of the quarterly earnings to June 5 because of the cyber attack.

According to Norsk Hydro, the overall financial impact of the massive attack would be 400-450 million Norwegian krona ($46-$52 million, 41-46 million euros..

“The cyber attack that hit us on March 19 has affected our entire global organization, with Extruded Solutions having suffered the most significant operational challenges and financial losses,” says President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg- He also added that the overall financial impact of the cyber attack is estimated at NOK 400-450 million in the first quarter.

The good news for the investors is that the company has a robust cyber insurance in place with recognized insurers.

The company did not pay any ransom and has filed a complaint with Norwegian police that is investigating the incident.

“The company’s shares dropped 1.65 percent in morning trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange.” states the AFP press.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Norsk Hydro, ransomare)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.