Biotech Company Miltenyi Biotec Discloses Malware Attack

International biotechnology company Miltenyi Biotec says it has fully recovered from a malware attack that affected parts of its network over the past couple of weeks.

The Cologne, Germany-based company provides solutions for cell and therapy research, including COVID-19-related products. It has facilities in 28 countries and employs more than 3,000 people.

In an official statement, Miltenyi Biotec announced that, over the past couple of weeks, it experienced malware attacks that affected some of its order processing capabilities.

“During the last two weeks, there have been isolated cases where order processing was impaired by malware in parts of our global IT infrastructure,” the company says.

The biotechnology provider also notes that it took all the necessary measures to contain the incident and assures that the affected systems have been restored.

Furthermore, it points out that it is not aware of customers or partners being affected by the malware attack.

“As of this time, our operational processes have been fully restored. Should you have experienced any delays with your orders, we ask you to be patient for just a little longer, and to get in contact with us in urgent cases,” Miltenyi Biotec says.

The company did not provide additional information on the nature of the attack, but it appears that the Mount Locker ransomware gang might have been responsible — they claimed responsibility for the attack earlier this month.

According to Bleeping Computer, the threat actor appears to have stolen data from the biotech firm and has already leaked some of it. The gang claims to have stolen more than 1GB of documents from Miltenyi Biotec.

The data theft does not come as a surprise, as numerous ransomware operators have started to employ the technique to entice victims into paying the ransom by threatening to make the stolen information public.

SecurityWeek has contacted Miltenyi Biotec for additional information on the attack and will update the article when a reply arrives.

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