FILE PHOTO: Logo of Bayer AG is pictured at the annual results news conference of the German drugmaker in Leverkusen, Germany February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
April 4, 2019
By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s largest drugmaker, Bayer, said it had detected and contained a cyber attack on its computer networks, highlighting the risk of data theft from industrial data systems.
Bayer found infectious software from a hacker group known as Winnti in early 2018, covertly monitored and analyzed it until the end of last month, and then cleared the threat from its systems, the company said on Thursday.
“There is no evidence of data theft,” the statement said, though a spokesman added that the overall damage was still being assessed.
Bayer is the world’s largest agricultural supplies company thanks to its takeover of Monsanto.
The Winnti group of hackers attacked computer systems at German technology group ThyssenKrupp in 2016, according to media reports at the time.
Manufacturing groups across the globe are expanding their data networks, as sensors, processing chips and analytical tools become more advanced and cheaper.
Germany has experienced a big increase in the number of security incidents hitting critical infrastructure such as power grids and water suppliers, the country’s cybersecurity agency said in February.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Patricia Weiss; Editing by Riham Alkousaa, Douglas Busvine and Dale Hudson)
