In short
- Tyre factory Apollo Vredestein was recently hacked. Production was also affected.
- Security proved to be inadequate: vulnerable equipment had not been updated for more than ten years.
- The devices could be accessed by anyone via the internet.
- Problems at the tyre factory are exemplary for the situation at many companies.
As one of the many Dutch companies, Apollo Vredestein appears to have been defenceless against cyber criminals. The tyre factory in Twente, which was shut down by hackers over a week ago, used equipment that hadn’t been updated for more than ten years. In addition, the instructions for hackers to get in were available on the internet.
The lack of security at Apollo Vredestein is exemplary of the situation at Dutch companies, experts tell the FD. According to them, companies are negligent in implementing program updates and do not sufficiently protect access to their networks. It was waiting for an attack’, says Arwi van der Sluijs, managing director at NFIR, a cyber security company that was responsible, among other things, for the security control of the Dutch corona tracingapp.
