Clorox cyberattack could mean products will be hard to find
NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) -- As we head into the cold and flu season, Clorox is warning consumers that it will be harder to find their products.
The company confirms a cyberattack is affecting its supply issue.
The company admitted the attack damaged its I-T infrastructure and caused disruption to its operations. In its SEC filing, Clorox said that after the cyberattack happened in August, it took its systems offline, which caused delays in processing orders and manufacturing.
More than a month after the attack, Clorox posted on its website they're still repairing portions of their computerized systems that were damaged, and still operating at a reduced rate. While the repairs are happening, Clorox says they're completing and processing orders manually. Craig Petronella, with Raleigh-based company, Petronella Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics says while some cyber-attacks impact customers' personal information, this attack appears to impact Clorox's supply chain. "It's not necessarily consumer data that might be breached. I think in this particular case. It's going to be a disruption. It's going to affect disruption, the ability to buy that product at a fair price, you know, and not have delays there," Petronella adds. He says companies never think a cyberattack will happen to them, and often don't prepare for the worst. "We really need to be on the forefront and constantly analyzing training, testing, doing penetration tests and risk assessments and just really trying to sharpen our defenses as much as possible," he adds.
Petronella says for consumers this is a reminder their network at home should also be protected against cyberattacks, "Everything that connects to your network has to be updated, patched, maintained, tested, make sure that it's safe. There's just so much that we rely on digitally these days anything is at risk."
When it comes to Clorox. The company is not giving a date when it expects to begin normal operations, but the company says it hopes to go back to its automated order processing next week.
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