Cyberattack on Hawa Sliding Solutions – 
Update as of 13.6.2023 

Production has resumed at Hawa – IT systems up and running again after cyberattack.

Following the cyberattack on the IT systems of Hawa Sliding Solutions AG at the end of April 2023, production has started up again. The company has now rebuilt the IT infrastructure to a higher security level, and taken a full inventory of its goods in the two plants in Mettmenstetten and Sirnach. Production has restarted after a five-week break in the week beginning June 5. However, the work that is needed to return to the usual performance capacities will take a little more time.

“Particularly the complete review and clearing-out of all IT systems took a considerable amount of time – time which was well invested in preventing opportunities for cyber criminals and the chance of carrying out another attack,” explains Business Applications Manager Gianni Belotti. He emphasizes: “After the sprint of the first reaction to the cyberattack, a marathon followed in the entire company in order to be there again for our customers again without compromising security. The next leg of the marathon will focus on data quality, so that we can eliminate the process workarounds which are still required. With the considerable commitment of our employees, we are making good progress every week.”

With all goods fully inventoried at the Mettmenstetten and Sirnach plants, production started last week at both sites. However, it will take time before we can return to normal production, assembly and procurement operations. All of the employees who have been affected are doing their utmost to increase production output. We can now also supply our distribution center (DC) in Weil am Rhein again.

All orders, old and new, have now been entered into the ERP system. Since the production capacities are currently being ramped up, no automated delivery dates can be provided at the moment. The customer service department at Hawa checks every order manually. In close cooperation with the global sales team, orders are being prioritized; where necessary, they are also planned in partial deliveries to make the best use of warehouse availability and transmitted to our DC on a daily basis. The sales partners are personally informed about delivery or pick-up times. A longer delivery time can probably be expected for selected products until July, but basically the whole standard product range is already available.

Individual coordination with sales is required when planning larger project orders so that the delivery times can be estimated, says Customer service manager, André Saiu: “This direct communication is important to us so that we can provide our customers with the best possible support and planning reliability.”

Thanks to everyone

In line with its corporate philosophy, Hawa maintained an open communication strategy even after the cyberattack, and provided up-to-date information about current progress. However, the reconstruction work is not yet complete.
 

“The dialog with our customers and contractors has helped us tremendously in coping with the cyberattack and fulfilling customer orders. We would like to express our sincere thanks for this, and also for the many 
orders which we are currently receiving. We are doing our best to meet all expectations on the quality of our products, order processing and delivery time reliability.”

Ezequiel Di Claudio, CEO of Hawa Sliding Solutions AG

Ezequiel Di Claudio also emphasizes that it is also thanks to the enormous commitment of all of the company employees that Hawa Sliding Solutions can now once again operate in a future-oriented manner.