Warehousing and transport service provider Bakker Logistiek was hit by a ransomware attack that caused food shortages in several Dutch supermarkets.
Bakker Logistiek is one of the largest logistics service providers in the Netherlands, specializing in providing constant temperature warehousing and food transportation services for supermarkets in the Netherlands.
Just last week, Bakker Logistiek was hit by a ransomware attack that saw devices on its business network encrypted, and food transportation and distribution systems paralyzed.
Toon Verhoeven, the company’s director, said in an interview on the matter, “We can’t receive customer orders normally, and we can’t figure out where the existing products are stored in the warehouse. Our warehouse is very large, and it is impossible to check one by one. We also There are a large number of delivery trucks, but because the overall scheduling cannot be done manually at all, the current transportation business cannot function normally.”
The incident directly brought a chain reaction to Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, and a variety of foods including cheese were temporarily unavailable.
Empty shelves in Albert Heijn supermarket
The shortage forced Albert Heijn to issue a notice on its official website, alerting customers to the supply problems with individually packaged cheeses.
The supermarket wrote on its website, “Due to a technical glitch, the supply of individually packaged cheese is limited. The logistics service provider is working hard to resolve the problem and restore supply as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
Bakker Logistiek said it can restore affected systems using backup copies and has begun coordinating with customers to resume delivery operations.
It’s unclear how the ransomware gang targeted Bakker Logistiek, but Verhoeven said in the interview that they suspect the attackers gained access to the system through a recently disclosed ProxyLogon vulnerability in Microsoft’s Exchange service.
Bakker Logistiek is not the first warehousing and logistics operator in the world to suffer a ransomware attack. Last November, Americold, an international temperature-controlled warehouse operator, was also hit by a ransomware attack that affected phone systems, email, inventory management and order fulfillment.