– The situation is extremely serious. On a daily basis, Tom Sørlie, manager of the pipe laying company Knut Malmberg AS in Gjøvik, has seriousness in his eyes. He says that the last week has been unreal. – In the short term, we manage with pen and paper on small things. But in the long term, if this were to drag on, it would have enormous consequences for what our order reserve will be in 2024. On Tuesday morning last week, he discovered that none of the computer systems the company depends on were working. When he eventually got hold of the IT supplier Inventum Øst, he learned that the supplier’s servers had been attacked by cybercriminals the same night. Over a week later, all computer systems are still down. PEN AND PAPER: On a daily basis, Tom Sørlie, manager of the pipe laying company Knut Malmberg, has to carry out all orders with pen and paper after the computer system failed. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news For the pipe-laying company, it means losing a lot of money every single day. Sørlie says they depend on the computer system both for planning operations, invoicing and not least calculating and budgeting upcoming projects. – We know we lost contracts worth six and a half million kroner last week, says Sørlie. This week they were given a deadline by a large contractor to submit a tender of around NOK 4 million. – It’s going to waste, because we don’t have enough data to be able to recalculate until Friday this week here. Up to 30 businesses are involved Erlend Lekang is the day-to-day manager of Inventum Øst in Gjøvik. He confirms that the company was exposed to a computer attack on the night of Tuesday last week. The attackers found a hole in one of the company’s firewalls. – The consequence is that we were forced to take down parts of our data services to ensure that the attack was not completed or continued. Erlend Lekang at his workplace in the company Inventum Øst. Photo: Alexander Nordby Lekang cannot answer how many businesses have been affected by the attack. – I don’t have a good answer to exactly how many users are affected. We are talking about a customer base of 20-30 businesses across the country. The company has notified the Norwegian Data Protection Authority and reported the attack to the police. Innlandet Police District confirms that they have started an investigation into the case with assistance from Kripos. Beyond that, the police have no comment on the case now. Possible ransomware virus – This business has probably been exposed to a ransomware attack where the computer system is encrypted. And then a monetary demand is made in order to get back one’s own data. Eivind Reiner-Holm says so. He is the acting day-to-day manager of the Norwegian Center for Information Security (Norsis) in Gjøvik. He says that it is often very difficult to get hold of and punish those behind it. Eivind Reiner-Holm at Norsis in Gjøvik gets engaged when he talks about the safety challenges Norwegian businesses face. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news In a report from 2020, the National Security Agency writes that Europol classifies ransomware as the greatest threat of all types of cybercrime. It is assumed that ransomware will have cost the global economy NOK 90 billion in 2019. In 2021, 10 percent of all Norwegian companies that they had been hacked during the past year. This was revealed in the Dark Number Survey for 2022 from the Business Security Council. But only 2 percent said they had been exposed to ransomware viruses. Often large international networks are behind such attacks, says Eivind Reiner-Holm. – They are not targeted at a business, but go out and try to find holes here and there. And when they find a hole, they use it. Fear of layoffs Tom Sørlie has sent out a layoff notice to all the employees in the pipe laying company he runs. – If we are not up and running data-wise by the middle of next week, that will be the consequence, he says. Røyrlegjar Tomas Pedersen is trustee for the employees. Trustee Tomas Pedersen fears that he may be made redundant next week. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news He says that the lack of a computer system also affects how they work out on the construction sites. – It affects all the jobs we are going to do in relation to the documentation we are required to do, timetables, where we are going. After all, we have all plans and the entire system on that computer system. Now both he and his workmates fear layoffs. – People are afraid of being made redundant, everyone is happy in their workplace. So being made redundant is something we would prefer to avoid, says Thomas Pedersen. Erlend Lekang in Inventum Øst hopes for a quick solution. He emphasizes that none of the customers have lost data, and that their backup systems have worked. – But we had to take down the services to be safe. We envision that we will be back in normal operation next Monday. This is what the computer screens look like at the pipe laying company in Gjøvik Photo: Arne Sørenes / news
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Pipe laying company in Gjøvik loses millions after hacking – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
