2023 Cyberattack Cost Clorox $49 Million

Following a cyberattack in August 2023, Clorox revealed the true cost of a security incident in a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), estimating a loss of $49 million.

The actual cost of a cyberattack is often difficult to ascertain, especially when it hits a large organization. The attack on Clorox significantly impacted the company as they had to process orders manually, and it took a couple of months until Clorox factories could produce and ship products in enough quantities.

In fact, the situation was bad enough for the company to issue a report to the SEC in 2023, warning that the attack would definitely affect earnings. As it turns out, Clorox can now put a number on that impact, and it’s $49 million.

“The impacts of these system disruptions included order processing delays and significant product outages, resulting in a negative impact on net sales and earnings,” Clorox said in the SEC filing. “The Company has since transitioned back to automated order processing. The Company experienced lessening operational impacts in the second quarter as it made progress in returning to normalized operations.”

“The effects of the cyberattack are expected to negatively impact fiscal year 2024 results, though some of the anticipated net sales not recognized in the first quarter as a result of the disruptions were recognized in the second quarter, and some are expected to be recognized in subsequent quarters of fiscal year 2024 as customers rebuild inventories,” the company added.

What is interesting is that Clorox says future attacks will also likely have a financial impact, but they expect it to be less due to new security measures put in place after the 2023 incident.