World’s largest wind turbine maker bounces back from cyberattack

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas suffered a ransomware attack on November 19. But the world’s largest wind turbine maker said today that almost all of its IT systems are back online.

Vestas cyberattack

The cyberattack that occurred 10 days ago affected the company’s IT infrastructure and compromised data. Its investigations indicated that it was ransomware, which is “a form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable.”

Vestas reported on its website today that “there is no indication that the event has impacted customer and supply chain operations, which is supported by the forensics investigation carried out with the assistance of third-party experts.”

The extent to which data has been compromised is still being investigated, but for now it appears that the data foremost relates to Vestas’ internal matters.

Henrik Andersen, president and chief executive officer of Vestas, said:

We have been through some tough days since we discovered the cyber incident, and executive management and the board of directors are thus very pleased that the incident didn’t impact wind turbine operations and almost all of our IT systems are running again. There is still a lot of work ahead of us to and we must remain extremely diligent toward cyber threats.

Vestas is a powerhouse in the wind turbine manufacturing industry. In February, it announced the launch of its new offshore wind turbine, the V236-15.0MW, which unseated GE’s 14MW Haliade-X as the world’s largest offshore wind turbine.

And in May, the company announced that it has figured out how to fully recycle wind turbine blades by splitting and recycling both fiber and epoxy.

Read more:

• Vestas takes GE’s ‘world’s largest offshore wind turbine’ title
• Wind giant Vestas says it can now fully recycle turbine blades

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