VARTA Battery Supplies Affected by Cyberattack

A sophisticated group of hackers managed to break into VARTA AG’s systems, affecting battery production at all of its global production plants, the energy giant said.

VARTA discovered the intrusion around two weeks ago, prompting it to inform market watchers and investors that it would temporarily shut down IT systems and battery production for “security reasons.”

The energy behemoth issued an update this week, saying it is making progress toward restoring operations, but that production at all its factories is still affected.

“The task force is currently working with the support of IT forensic experts and data analysts on the step-by-step testing and recommissioning of the systems,” according to the notice.

“There is currently no reliable information on how long it will take to process and resolve the attack or on when production at all five global production sites (Ellwangen, Nördlingen, Dischingen, Brasov/Romania and Batam/Indonesia) will be fully operational.”

VARTA has deployed employees in all plants for maintenance, servicing and preparatory work, so that it can restore some production next week. Staff that can’t resume duties due to the attack have been commissioned to help where they can – i.e. preparatory tasks and process improvements.

The investigation, which is still ongoing, revealed that VARTA suffered a targeted attack by a high-level group of hackers.

“It is now clear that the cyberattack was carried out by an organised group of hackers who managed to break through the high security standards of VARTA's IT systems with a high level of criminal energy,” the company says.

Such attacks are typically the work of high-profile ransomware operators. However, no ransomware group known today has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

VARTA stops short of mentioning if any company data was stolen in the attack.