Cyberattack Turns Off the Taps at Barcelona’s Damm Brewery

Cyberattack Turns Off the Taps at Barcelona’s Damm Brewery
Boxes with Estrella Damm beer are seen inside a supermarket in Ferrol, Spain, on Nov. 12, 2021. (Nacho Doce/Reuters)
Reuters
11/13/2021
Updated:
11/13/2021

MADRID—Spain’s second biggest beer maker Damm halted output at its main brewery outside Barcelona after a cyberattack hit its computer systems earlier this week, a spokesperson said on Friday.

The attack hit the brewery on Tuesday night and for a few hours the plant in El Prat de Llobregat, which produces 7 million hectolitres (5.9 million barrels) of beer a year, was “entirely paralyzed”, Olga Vidal, Damm’s head of communications, told Reuters on Friday.

“IT services made possible a partial resumption of production and we expect to operate at 100 percent in the coming hours,” she said.

She declined to say whether a ransom was demanded of the company or if the maker of Estrella Damm lager had paid anything to the hackers behind the attack.

She wouldn’t confirm whether the company had notified the police and local police declined to comment.

Damm bottles several other beer brands beside its iconic Estrella Damm and has honored all deliveries to bars, restaurants and supermarkets thanks to existing stocks, Vidal said.

Several high-profile cyberattacks in the past year, including the Colonial Pipeline hack, which caused panic buying of fuel across the eastern United States in May, have jolted governments and companies into reviewing their security policies.

A European Union report released in October found the COVID-19 pandemic and rise of home working had created opportunities for cybercriminals to flourish and led to a proliferation of so-called hackers for hire.

Last month, the Autonomous University of Barcelona was hit by a ransomware attack, while earlier this year hackers knocked out several services at Spain’s employment agency.