Cyberattack at Crown? Story of a German blogger – Mercer County Outlook

(14.06.24) A German blogger (Born’s Tech and Windows World) sent the following email to Outlook:

Are you aware that Crown Equipment in New Bremen has experienced a production shutdown? I’m told it’s a cyber incident – their website is down (worldwide), no phone, they haven’t paid their workers but are tight-lipped about details. I’ve summarized what I found out (I’m a tech blogger living in Germany). If you could provide any further guidance, that would be helpful.

Part of the above story –

• Since Monday, June 10, 2024, production has been suspended at the forklift manufacturer’s two locations in Roding (Cham district in Germany).
• The switchboard is dead, so the manufacturer cannot be reached by phone.
• Crown’s website (crown(.)com) is not accessible worldwide.

And there are reports of IT problems worldwide. Some of the employees from Roding were sent home. According to the report, the Crown managing director on site in Roding could not say exactly what happened. There are current posts on the company’s Facebook pages, but no explanation of what is going on. The Bing crawler was last able to access the page on June 9, 2024. Given the overall picture above, I suspect a ransomware attack.

The German blogger

Günter Born is a freelance author living in Germany. He has a degree in physics and more than 30 years of professional experience as an engineer. Since 1989 he has written more than 200 books on Windows, Office and other information technology topics.