The Daily Standard
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NEW BREMEN - An international cybercriminal organization hacked Crown Equipment Corporation, forcing the company to temporarily shut down its operating systems to investigate and resolve the matter.
The company, one of the area's top employers, made the announcement about the cyberattack and its ramifications in a news release on Wednesday, attributing a "malicious attack to an international cybercriminal organization."
"The company is working with some of the world's leading cybersecurity experts as well as federal law enforcement to analyze the data and determine the appropriate next steps," the release states.
The newspaper called the Cleveland FBI office to see if the agency is involved in the investigation. A spokesperson said she would look into the inquiry but did not get back with the newspaper by deadline.
"The company is still working through the disruption caused by the attack and is making progress toward transitioning to normal business operations," the release states. "Crown is also working closely with its customers to help reduce the effect the incident may have on their operations."
The company also reported that "ongoing security measures played a key role in helping to limit the effects of the attack."
The release did not indicate what operations have been affected by the cyberattack or the status of Crown employees.
Crown senior communications manager Jeff Lawrence said no additional information is available at this time.
On June 12, Lawrence told The Daily Standard that Crown Equipment had been hit by an information technology "disruption" earlier last week, halting operations at its Celina and New Bremen facilities.
"There are certain functions that have had to be suspended just based on the availability of the tools and things that we need to operate," he had said. "I wouldn't classify it as a complete shutdown of everything. It's something that happened earlier in the week and … the team's continuing to work through that."
Crown's website continued to be down on Wednesday.
Crown Equipment Corporation, founded in 1945, is one of the world's largest material handling companies, producing a broad range of forklifts as well as automation and fleet management technologies, according to a company news release.
The company's global headquarters are located in New Bremen, with regional headquarters in Australia, China, Germany and Singapore, per the release. It employs 19,600 people globally, with 24 manufacturing plants in 14 locations worldwide.
The cyber landscape today is threatened by a multitude of malicious actors who have the tools to conduct large-scale fraud schemes, hold money and data for ransom and endanger national security, according to the FBI's 2023 Internet Crime Report.
Profit-driven cybercriminals and nation-state adversaries alike have the capability to paralyze entire school systems, police departments, healthcare facilities and individual private sector entities, the report states.
"In 2023, IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) received a record number of complaints from the American public: 880,418 complaints were registered, with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion," the report reads. "This is a nearly 10% increase in complaints received, and it represents a 22% increase in losses suffered, compared to 2022."
The figures, the report noted, are conservative as not all cyberattack victims report to law enforcement.
