Cyberattack on Hawa Sliding Solutions –
Update as of 13.7.2023
Recovery of full capabilities to serve the Hawa sales partners reliably
Further important milestones have been achieved in dealing with the cyberattack on Hawa Sliding Solutions at the end of April 2023. As much as Hawa regrets the circumstances of the cyberattack and data theft, we are pleased to share with you successes in the recovery of our systems and also our efforts to restore the usual Hawa service level regarding delivery speed and reliability.
Since the last update (13.6.2023), the rebuilding of the IT-systems has been completed. All servers and workstations have been reset, checked for viruses, and replaced if necessary. Hawa continues working with dedication on eliminating the last workarounds and rebuilding the lost data.
Thanks to the trust and the regular orders of our business partners, Hawa is currently experiencing a very high load in order processing and thus production demand. With the help of the whole Hawa staff and regular support of the production by the “office employees”, production capacity ramp-up has successfully taken place with extended shifts.
Since July 10, we added further shifts to almost double our production capacity of the product families with highest demand, like the popular Hawa Concepta pivot and folding/slide-in hardware system. The supply chain and material flow in and to the Mettmenstetten and Sirnach plants are continuously being looked after to deliver the required raw material, components or services in the required quantity and quality.
Hawa Sliding Solutions is committed to maintain production capacity at a higher output level than before the cyberattack as long as necessary, to absorb the current orders backlog over the coming weeks. The whole Hawa product range is available, and the production backlog for standard items is being reduced every day.
Unexpected challenges in shipping logistics sometimes still lead to bottlenecks, that make it impossible for Hawa to always keep our delivery time promise as usual. Solutions to reduce the delivery time are being worked out in collaboration with our logistics partner Rhenus-Logistics in Germany.
The positive development is tarnished by the fact that data was also stolen from Hawa during the cyberattack. Until now, both the investigating authorities and the IT forensic specialists we commissioned had no information about that. This status changed on Friday, July 7: the cybercriminals who claimed responsibility for attacking the Hawa IT system uploaded a package of stolen data to the Darknet. The Darknet is a separate area of the Internet that cannot be accessed through common search engines. It is used for anonymous communication, but also by cybercriminals and organized crime. To access the Darknet and data on the Darknet, special software and technical knowledge are required. It can be assumed that the data package contains malware as well as stolen data. That’s why Hawa strongly advises against downloading any data package. The specialists commissioned by Hawa will download the data package in a secure environment and analyze the content. If the analyses provide indications that personal data or business data has been leaked as a result of the theft, Hawa will inform the affected individuals and companies in coordination with the relevant data protection authorities.
“The consequence of the Cyberattack are multifaceted and require upmost attention. Many challenges have been addressed so far and have been successfully completed. But Hawa knows we must further improve. We deeply regret and apologize for the still existing inconveniences. We thank you very much in advance for your understanding, your trust, and a little more patience with us given the current circumstances.”
Ezequiel Di Claudio, CEO of Hawa Sliding Solutions AG
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