Coca-Cola said Monday it has resumed “the majority of production” for its dairy brand Fairlife after a ransomware attack that temporarily shut down four U.S. manufacturing facilities.
“The company continues working diligently to restore impacted systems and operations,” the Atlanta beverage giant said in a news release. Coca-Cola previously said Fairlife operations in Canada were not affected.
Retail availability of Fairlife has been “largely unimpacted” because of the availability of existing inventory, Coke said Monday. The company also said it doesn’t believe the incident will have a material effect on its “financial condition or results of operations.”
Coca-Cola disclosed the cyberattack July 16, saying it temporarily suspended U.S. production of Fairlife after an unauthorized third party accessed a portion of its systems.
Last week, a hacker group calling itself Anubis claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to leak 1 terabyte of confidential data unless its demands were met. The group set a deadline for the morning of Monday, July 27.
As of 9:30 a.m. Monday, Anubis’ alleged threat remained on a dark-web site, not accessible through a standard web browser. But the timer had run out, and no files appeared available for download.
Credit: website
Credit: website
A Coca-Cola spokesperson said Monday the company had no additional information to share.
In a ransomware attack, criminal groups infiltrate computer systems, make data inaccessible and then demand a ransom, typically requiring payment through a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, to regain access.
Fairlife, which sells filtered milk and protein shakes, is a top brand in Coca-Cola’s portfolio, surpassing $1 billion in annual retail sales in 2022. Fairlife’s growth has coincided with the rise of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, which has encouraged more people to up their protein intake.
The Fairlife attack comes months after Coca-Cola brought on a new CEO, Henrique Braun, who has named the company’s digital transformation one of his key priorities. Coca-Cola also added its first chief digital officer this year.
The company will report its second quarter earnings Tuesday, when executives typically discuss certain issues affecting the company.
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