October 26, 2021  — 
Eric Swotinsky

Candy giant Ferrara hit by ransomware, impacting production

Just weeks before millions of kids build their annual candy stash, candy giant Ferrara Candy — who you may know as the makers of Nerds, Laffy Taffy, SweetTarts, and other favorites — was struck by a ransomware attack on October 9.

Production in their manufacturing facilities was impacted, but Ferrara is now back up and running. While the company is still working through a backlog of orders, they do not expect a significant impact to consumers in the wake of this attack.

The amount of the ransom demanded, and whether Ferrara chose to pay it, have not been released. The group responsible for the attack is also not known at this time.

One tactic used by cybercriminals is to strike at critical times. This helps increase the pressure on victims to just pay up, so they can minimize the impact on their business. With Acronis Cyber Protect, there is no need to worry about ransomware attacks — its included Active Protection detects and blocks both new and unknown ransomware variants, no matter what group is responsible for the attack.