Clorox Cyberattack Causes Widespread Disruption, Shortages

In August 2023, Clorox, a cleaning product manufacturer, suffered a cyberattack that caused widespread disruption of the company's operations. The attack was detected on August 14th, and Clorox's IT team took immediate action by halting suspicious activity and shutting down affected systems.

Clorox has not been able to get its manufacturing operations back up to full speed and is fulfilling and processing orders manually. The attack has caused some of Clorox's products to be in short supply as the company has struggled to meet consumer demand during the disruption. Clorox has not specified which of its products are affected.

The cybersecurity attack damaged portions of the company's IT infrastructure, causing widespread disruption of Clorox's operations. The company is repairing the infrastructure and is reintegrating the systems that were proactively taken offline. A return to normal automated order processing is scheduled for September 25th.

Clorox has said that the cyberattack and the delays will hurt its current-quarter financial results materially, although determining any longer-term impact would be premature, "given the ongoing recovery." Clorox shares fell about 2% in early trading

The attack on Clorox highlights the importance of cybersecurity in today's world. Companies must take proactive measures to protect their sensitive information from cybercriminals.

Valinsky, J., “Clorox products in short supply aftercyberattack disrupts operations”, CNN Business, Sep 18th, 2023.

“Clorox Company admits cyberattack disruption was‘widescale’”, The Register, Sep 19th, 2023.

“Clorox Operations Disrupted By Cyber-Attack”, InfosecurityMagazine, Aug 16th, 2023.