Ransomware attack hits Coca-Cola’s Fairlife, disrupts U.S. operations

The Coca-Cola Company revealed that Fairlife was hit by a ransomware attack, with threat actors breaching the dairy subsidiary’s internal network and disrupting operations in the U.S. market.

 

Fairlife, the Coca-Cola Company’s dairy subsidiary, is a U.S.-based producer of ultra-filtered milk, protein shakes, and other dairy beverages. Operating as a wholly owned subsidiary since 2020, Fairlife manages its own internal network and business operations. 

 

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 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 immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the scope of the incident.

 

It also activated its incident response and business continuity protocols and notified law enforcement authorities about the incident.

 

“Product quality and safety have not been impacted. However, as a result of the incident, production operations at fairlife in the United States were temporarily suspended. Fairlife’s Canada production operations are not currently impacted,” Coca-Cola said.

 

The company said it is working around the clock to investigate the incident, restore affected systems, and resume impacted operations. However, the full scope, nature, and potential impact of the breach remain under investigation. As a result, Coca-Cola said it has not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to have a material impact on the company.

 

At the time of publishing, no known hacker group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Fairlife. The company also did not share details on who was behind the attack, how much data was compromised, or whether it had received a ransom demand.