Dutch Supermarkets Run Out Of Cheese After Ransomware Attack

A ransomware attack against conditioned warehousing and transportation provider Bakker Logistiek has caused a cheese shortage in Dutch supermarkets.

Bakker Logistiek is one of the largest logistics services providers in the Netherlands, offering air-conditioned warehousing and food transportation for Dutch supermarkets.

Last week, Bakker Logistiek suffered a ransomware attack that encrypted devices on their network and disrupted food transportation and fulfillment operations.

“We could no longer receive orders from customers,” Bakker director Toon Verhoeven told NOS. “And in our warehouses we no longer knew where products were. These are very large warehouses, you don’t just go looking for a pallet. We also couldn’t plan our transports anymore. We have hundreds of trucks, which was not done by hand either.”

This disruption led to a shortage of certain food products, especially cheese, at the Netherland’s largest supermarket chain, Albert Heijn.

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The shortage has led Albert Heijn to post a notice on their website alerting customers of the limited availability of prepackaged cheese.

“Due to a technical malfunction, there is limited availability on the prepackaged cheese. The logistics service provider works hard to solve the problem as quickly as possible and to quickly restore availability. We apologize for the inconvenience,” AH posted on their website.

Bakker Logistiek has said that they could restore affected systems from backups and have begun coordinating with customers to begin deliveries again.

It is unknown what ransomware gang targeted Bakker Logistiek, but Verhoeven has told NOS that they speculate that the threat actors gained access to their systems through the recently reported Microsoft Exchange ProxyLogon vulnerabilities.

Bakker Logistiek is not the first conditioned warehouse operator to get hit in a ransomware attack.

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In November, global temperature-controlled warehouses operator Americold suffered ransomware attack that impacted phone systems, email, inventory management, and order fulfillment.