Cyber attack at the Swiss sliding hardware manufacturer

Have cybercriminals “zeroed in” on the hardware industry? On the last weekend of April 2023, a hacker attack hit the IT systems of Hawa Sliding Solutions AG. The Swiss sliding hardware manufacturer reacted immediately, informing customers and suppliers, shutting down all systems and disconnecting them from the network to protect sensitive data. A large number of employees complied with the company’s request, temporarily taking and performing their duties from their home offices. An internal task force, reinforced with specialists, is now working intensively to fully restore the operational processes.

The malicious program, imported from an external source, is aimed at restricting order processing, production and sales, according to the company. For example, orders can currently only be accepted manually and processed only after the IT systems have been fully restored. Field and customer service as well as technical advisors remain available as usual via telephone (landline and mobile), e-mail and video chat. The Hawa web pages are still online.

The task force is working flat out to rebuild the IT infrastructure so that it can be used securely and reliably in the future together with the business partners. Hawa will keep customers and suppliers regularly informed about the progress of the work, he said. According to the internal and commissioned external specialists for IT security and forensics, there is no evidence so far that the injected malware has spread to external systems.

The Nagold-based company Häfele was affected as recently as this spring, and is still working to get all processes “back up to speed” and, above all, to equip itself optimally against a possible new attack. See HERE.

As such incidents are becoming more frequent, the “möbelfertigung” team has decided to make the topic of “cybersecurity” one of the leading themes of the 6th industry conference “Efficient Furniture Manufacturing in Practice” on December 6-7, 2023 in Düsseldorf. There will be insights from the companies concerned (including Ima Schelling Group and Häfele), as well as concrete recommendations for action from specialists in this field. Here is the link to the event homepage, where we will publish the new program in July: https://www.moebel-events.de/effiziente-moebelfertigung/. Or follow the event’s focus page on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/80043415 to stay up to date.