Hackers hit Vesuvius, UK engineering company shuts down affected systems

Hackers hit Vesuvius, UK engineering company shuts down affected systems

Vesuvius, the London Stock Exchange-listed molten metal flow engineering company, says it has been hit by a cyber attack.

This morning, Vesuvius issued an alert that it was “currently managing a cyber incident.”

Vesuvius plc, a global leader in molten metal flow engineering and technology, is currently managing a cyber incident. The incident has involved unauthorised access to our systems.

Immediately upon becoming aware of unauthorised activity on our networks, we have taken the necessary steps to investigate and respond to the incident, including shutting down affected systems. We are working with leading cyber security experts to support our investigations and identify the extent of the issue, including the impact on production and contract fulfilment.

We are taking steps to comply with all relevant regulatory obligations in light of the information that emerges from our ongoing investigations.

For now the details are scant. There is no indication yet of the scale of the problem, or what IT systems may have been affected by the attack at the company which manufactures ceramics for the steel industry.

There’s also no description of the nature of the attack (although no-one would be surprised if it turned out to be ransomware), and whether the company has received any form of communication from its attackers.

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The attack against Vesuvius is the latest in a line of ransomware attacks impacting British organisations in recent months, including the Royal Mail.

Shares in Vesuvius, which employs more than 10,000 people, fell 3.8% in early trading.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "The AI Fix" and "Smashing Security" podcasts. Follow him on Bluesky and Mastodon, or drop him an email.

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