Duvel breweries shut after cyber attack

BELGIAN brewery Duvel has insisted it will have enough beer to keep supply flowing after it was hit by a cyber attack that brought production to a standstill.

The company, one of the best-known Belgian beer brands, was hit by a suspected ransomware attack on Tuesday night that shut down five of its production facilities, four of which are in Belgium along with one in Kansas City, Missouri.

Duvel has launched an investigation into the attack and managed to bring a Belgian brewery back online, but the other four remain at a standstill.

A spokesman for Duvel played down suggestions the issue could lead to a shortage of beers. “To our knowledge, we just should have more than enough beer,” he said.

Duvel said it shut down its IT systems as soon as it became aware of the attack.

In a ransomware attack, criminals use malware to lock and encrypt a target’s data, files, devices or systems, demanding a ransom payment to return access.

Duvel’s communications manager Ellen Aarts told the Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad that ransomware had been detected.

Duvel was founded in 1871 in Antwerp and sells beer with an alcohol by volume (ABV) of about 8.5pc, signifi- cantly higher than many typical British ales.

The brewery made more than 230m litres of beer in 2022, according to its latest report, posting sales of (€583m) £497m. As well as its namesake beer, it brews the brands Chouffe, Vedett and Liefmans.

It first began selling its beers to the British during the First World War.

The Duvel spokesman said: “The built-in command systems and alarms in the IT system worked well, so our IT department was immediately informed of the attack.

“The servers were immediately shut down. The investigation into the cause of the cyber attack is ongoing.”