VDL has almost fully recovered after it was hit by a cyber attack in early October. Since 7 October, after the cyber attack was discovered, the company has been busy getting itself and its 105 subsidiaries back to work. The financial damage of the cyber attack is unknown.
VDL says the damage was limited ‘to a maximum of one day’s lost data’. The cyber attack was detected on Wednesday 6 October, when abnormal activities were observed. “After that, the cyber attack scenario was put into effect,” says VDL. This means that all IT systems of the high-tech company were disconnected and isolated.
“Immediately after the attack, a crisis team was formed at the highest level and our own IT department was scaled up with recognised specialists in the field of cybercrime,” says VDL director Willem van der Leegte. “We made adequate contact with authorities in this field and reported the matter to the police at an early stage, and filed a report with the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data.”
“For security reasons, we immediately built up offline decentralised systems and made a start on rebuilding our IT environment. Data from our own, ‘clean’ and timely secured backups were then restored,” said Van der Leegte.
Higher dikes
VDL says it has made considerable investments in the field of digitalisation and cyber security in recent years. The company is also said to have continuously passed audits by customers and specialists in this field. Nevertheless, VDL says it is ‘raising the dikes’, and realises that such attacks cannot always be ruled out.
Social problem
In addition, VDL let it be known that cyber attacks such as those aimed at the Eindhoven-based company are a broader social problem. “We certainly believe that cybercrime is a socially underexposed theme and that the issue should be given the broad attention it deserves. We will certainly make our contribution to that debate.”
Finally, the VDL director wanted to express his gratitude for the support the company has received. “The overwhelming supportive reactions and help offered from the region, and from home and abroad, has been heartwarming. For that, we thank everyone warmly.”
Source: Studio040
Translation: Anitha Sevugan
