Belgian beer firm Duvel is confident of maintaining supplies of its product despite a cyber-attack shutting down all of its production facilities.
The company says it fell victim to the suspected ransomware attack and initially all five facilities were shut down – one later came back online in Puurs-Sint-Amands in Belgium. Four are in Belgium along with one in Kansas City, Missouri.
A spokesman for Duvel moved quickly to calm fears of a shortage of the product and said: “To our knowledge, we just should have more than enough beer.”
Duvel, which also produces beers such as Chouffe, Vedett and Liefmans, was founded in 1871 and made £497million (Euros 583m) in revenue in 2022. Duvel first began selling its beers to British consumers during the First World War, taking inspiration from English Ales, and launched a commemorative Victory Ale to mark the end of the war.
The company uses the same Scottish yeast strain that has been included in the family’s ales since the 1920s with major UK supermarket chains stocking the Belgian beer.
The company said it shut down its IT systems as soon as it became aware of the attack, which caused production at its facilities to stop. Ellen Aarts, Duvel’s communications manager , told the Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad that ransomware had been detected by its IT department.
The Duvel spokesman said: “The built-in command systems and alarms in the IT-system worked well, so our IT department was immediately informed of the attack.”
IBM’s most recent Cost of a Data Breach report found manufacturing was the single most targeted sector by cybercriminals. The average cost of a data breach at a business like Duvel is £2.96m ($3.8 m) according to IBM’s figures.
Cyber policies offered by W Denis provide more than just insurance, they are inclusive of additional services which help to mitigate the impact of a data breach/hack etc, including PR services to manage the crisis, forensics to investigate the root cause and expertise to eradicate the issue. Locked systems and ransomware can be catastrophic to a business. Prudent risk managers who buy comprehensive cyber insurance gain access to a wide range of support services to help the business in the event of a claim in addition to ransomware payment negotiations.
To discuss this further with a broker at W Denis, please make arrangements with Daniel Moss at daniel.moss@wdenis.co.uk or on 0044 (0)113 2439812 or contact Mark Dutton at mark.dutton@wdenis.co.uk or on 0044 (0) 7831 366 469
