Quote:Another high-profile company has been hit with a cyber attack that’s causing a major disruption to its business. Brewing company Molson Coors acknowledged on Thursday that it has “experienced a systems outage that was caused by a cybersecurity incident,” according to a Form 8-K filed with the SEC.
 
The company did not say which type of attack has caused widespread issues across its entire business — including its brewery operations, production and shipments — but given recent major attacks on other mainstream companies, security experts are speculating that it could have been a ransomware attack.
 
Molson Coors has employed forensic IT firms and legal counsel to investigate and “is working around the clock to get its systems back up as quickly as possible,” according to the filing.
 
The company operates seven breweries and packaging plants in the United States, as well as three in Canada and 10 in Europe. It produces several brands of beer in addition to its namesake, including Blue Moon, Miller Lite and Pilsner Urquell.
 
“High-profile attacks are becoming all too common, as attackers have realized they are immensely more profitable when they target large organizations and disrupt their critical business operations — in this case, the brewing operations of the world’s biggest, well-known beer brands,” observed Edgard Capdevielle, CEO at Nozomi Networks, in an email to Threatpost.
 
Although the company hasn’t released specific details of the incident, given the seriousness of the disruption and recent cyberattack activity, “it could be ransomware,” he said.