Clorox, the household cleaning product manufacturer, has admitted that its financial results for the first quarter could see a “material impact” after hackers attacked its systems.
In mid-August, Clorox revealed that its IT systems had been taken offline and its operations “temporarily impaired” after “unauthorised activity” on its network.
As a consequence, Clorox put emergency plans into operation and began manually processing and shipping orders from its manufacturing facilities.
Some of Clorox’s factories are reportedly still not producing and shipping products in sufficient quantities, leading to some stores running out of bleach and cat litter.
Clorox says it has now resumed production at the majority of its sites, but is not able to provide an estimate of when normal operations will be fully restored.
But this isn’t just a supply problem for the company.
As The Register reportsa filing by Clorox to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) admits that the security breach’s “impact will be material on Q1 financial results.”
Clorox says it is “premature” to determine what longer-term impact will be on business, as its recovery from the attack continues.
The company has not to date confirmed what many observers suspect, that Clorox is the latest in the long line of ransomware victims. In the past, some businesses impacted by ransomware attacks have claimed that they have suffered disruption and losses totalling hundreds of millions of dollars.
