Hackers target fish farmer

Lingalaks made the announcement in a press release saying: “We take this very seriously.”

The company believes the attack to be malicious in intent, although it doesn’t know as yet what the motive is. It said later that the attack has now been stopped.

The official announcement said that the attack on Lingalaks’ internal system was first identified at around lunchtime on Wednesday and lasted for some three hours.

The statement added: “Some sensitive data was leaked before the attack was stopped. This is personal information such as social security numbers, names, email addresses and phone numbers of former and current employees up to 2021.

“The leak also applies to contact information for customers and suppliers up to 2021. We are working closely with security experts to understand the scope of the incident and limit further risk. Our systems are intact and functioning as normal.”

Immediately after the discovery of the breach, the company undertook a number of measures which included: 

• Securing systems to prevent further access.
• Engaging external data security experts to conduct a thorough review.
• Notifying the Norwegian Data Protection Authority in accordance with the regulations.
• Reporting the incident to the police.
• Taking steps to notify people who may be affected by the incident.
   

The statement added: "We take this very seriously and are continuously working to strengthen our security systems. We apologise for this incident and any inconvenience this has caused. Our customers and partners can be assured that we are doing everything in our power to handle the situation and prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.”

Lingalaks AS is a local family-owned company based in Norheimsund, near Bergen. In 1978, Rolv and Åsta Haugarvoll released five thousand salmon into the sea in home-made cages. Their own slaughtering started in 1980 and a new slaughterhouse was built in 1987.