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The Coca-Cola Company has confirmed that production at its Fairlife dairy business in the US has been temporarily suspended following a ransomware attack that compromised part of the company's systems.
According to Coca-Cola, Fairlife identified unauthorised access by a third party to a portion of its IT infrastructure, including production-related systems, prompting the company to activate its incident response and business continuity protocols.
The company said it is continuing to investigate the incident with the support of external cybersecurity specialists and advisors, while law enforcement agencies have also been notified. The full scope and impact of the cyberattack remain under investigation.
Despite the operational disruption, Coca-Cola stressed that product quality and food safety have not been affected.
In a statement, the company said: "As a result of the incident, production operations at Fairlife in the United States are temporarily suspended; Fairlife's Canada production operations are not currently impacted."
Coca-Cola is working to restore affected systems and resume normal operations as quickly as possible, although it has not provided a timeline for restarting production.
The incident highlights the growing cybersecurity risks facing food and beverage manufacturers, many of which are increasingly reliant on digitally connected production systems. Ransomware attacks have become a significant concern across the manufacturing sector, with disruptions capable of halting production, interrupting supply chains and affecting customer deliveries.
While Coca-Cola has not disclosed whether any data was compromised or whether a ransom demand was made, the company noted that its assessment of the incident remains ongoing.
Fairlife, acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 2020, produces a range of ultra-filtered milk, protein shakes and nutrition products and forms part of Coca-Cola's expanding value-added dairy portfolio.
The company said it will continue its investigation and remediation efforts while working to restore impacted operations. Further updates are expected as more information becomes available.
Top image: © Fairlife
