Industrial group VDL Groep says that work has almost completely resumed at the 105 locations worldwide after the cyber attack a month ago. VDL makes buses and passenger cars, among other things.
“By restoring ‘clean’ data from a backup, local digitally safe environments have been created and all VDL companies have been able to continue to recover their production activities,” said the company with its head office in Eindhoven.
VDL announced on Thursday 7 October that it had been the victim of a cyber attack. The production of cars at VDL Nedcar in Born in Limburg, among other things, came to a standstill as a result.
Crisis team
“Immediately after the attack, a crisis team was formed at the highest level and our own IT department was scaled up with recognized specialists in the field of cyber crime,” says director Willem van der Leegte. “We have made adequate contact with authorities and made a preventive report to the police at an early stage and reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.”
The company says investigations into the background and consequences of the attack are still ongoing. In the first months of 2022, VDL expects to be able to say what the financial damage is.
The company says it will not share further information about the attack, because hackers could take advantage of it. “The current and future IT architecture will also not be explained further.”
VDL also does not say whether it was a ransomware attack, in which hackers ‘hostage’ systems and demand money to restore access to those systems.
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