An 8 June cyber attack on brewing giant Lion was caused by ransomware. In a 15 June update, the company said it has made good progress bringing key systems back online but there is still “some way to go” before normal manufacturing and customer service can resume.
Lion still has limited visibility of products in the system in its alcohol businesses across Australia and New Zealand. It hopes to get some of its breweries back up and running “very soon”.
For Lion Australia, the impact has been temporary shortages or out-of-stocks across both packaged (bottles and cans) and keg brands. It said while systems are offline it has worked to keep a limited supply of key products to customers.
Lion New Zealand has been able to maintain key products to customers with sufficient supply of its pack beer prads, but there are temporary shortages of some of its keg beer brands. Speight’s Brewery resumed production on 15 June.
In its Dairy & Drinks business, there are ongoing disruptions at manufacturing sites and some of its customer service systems are still offline. There have been service misses due to the fresh nature of the products. Lion has been moving the manufacture of different products at various sites in a bid to meet demand. Manual ordering and delivery is still in place.
The company said there was no evidence any information, including financial or personal, was affected.
“The restoration process is taking time but it’s important that we do this methodically and safely as we work to resume normal business operations.
“We have notified the authorities of the incident; and we will work alongside the relevant government authorities, law enforcement agencies and privacy regulators, as required.” it said.
