Coca-Cola’s Fairlife returns to full production after data breach disruption

The Coca-Cola Company announced that Fairlife has restarted production at all four of its U.S. facilities after recovering from a significant data security incident that disrupted operations earlier this month.

 

Earlier this month, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Coca-Cola said that on July 16, Fairlife detected unauthorised third-party access to a portion of its systems, including production-related systems, as part of a ransomware incident. The company launched an investigation with external cybersecurity experts, activated response and continuity measures, and notified law enforcement authorities.

 

Coca-Cola said product quality and safety remained unaffected, but the cybersecurity incident temporarily halted production at Fairlife facilities in the United States, while operations in Canada continued without disruption.

 

The Anubis ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Coca-Cola’s Fairlife subsidiary, listing it as a victim on its data leak site. The group said it stole confidential company data and threatened to publish the information if ransom demands were not met. Coca-Cola has not verified the group’s claims.

 

 

 

In a seperate post, Anubis said that negotiations with Coca-Cola fell apart, following which it destroyed the decryption keys, and leaked the entire stolen database. The group further stated that the data leak caused Coca-Cola losses amounting to millions.

 

In a recent update, Coca-Cola said Fairlife has restored the majority of production at its four U.S. facilities, while product availability in retail stores has remained largely unaffected due to existing inventory. The company added that product quality and safety standards were not impacted.

 

“Based on the information currently available, the company believes the incident has not had, and is not reasonably likely to have, a material impact on the company’s financial condition or results of operations,” Coca-Cola added.