Shipbuilder Fincantieri’s Norwegian Unit Hit with Ransomware Attack

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A group of hackers executed a successful attack this week on shipbuilder Fincantieri SpA’s Norwegian unit, an Italy-based representative for the company said, confirming local reports.

Servers at the Norwegian unit, Vard Group AS, were infected with a ransomware, and the company “took in place all the actions needed to solve the issue,” the spokesman said. He said none of Fincantieri’s servers were involved in the attack.

The U.S. was hit by a record volume of ransomware attacks in 2019 and attackers have shown little sign of relenting in 2020, when users spent more time on less secure networks while working from home. In 2019, at least 966 government agencies, schools and health-care providers were attacked at a cost of more than $7.5 billion, according to the cyber research firm Emsisoft. Among those were almost 90 universities and school districts.

Fincantieri is the Italian state-owned shipyard that builds vessels for Carnival Corp. and other cruise companies. The company reported last year revenue for 5.8 billion euros ($6.6 billion).

–With assistance from Lars Erik Taraldsen, Mikael Holter and Alberto Brambilla.

Photograph: Models of ships sit at the Fincantieri Shipyards booth at the Cruise Shipping Miami trade show in 2015. Photo credit: Bloomberg.