Coca-Cola halts U.S. Fairlife milk production after cyberattack hits systems, company says

Fairlife \ CBS

The Coca-Cola Co. said a cyberattack has forced it to temporarily halt its Fairlife milk operations in the U.S.

An unauthorized third-party user accessed Chicago-based Fairlife milk’s production systems in what the beverage giant believes was a ransomware event, Coca-Cola said in a statement Thursday.

It’s unclear when the breach occurred. As soon as it detected the issue, though, the company began investigating the incident with the help of external cybersecurity experts. It has also notified law enforcement.

“The full scope, nature and impacts of the incident are not yet known,” Coca-Cola said in a statement. It added that the breach has not affected product quality or safety.

“However, as a result of the incident, production operations at [F]airlife in the United States are temporarily suspended,” Coca-Cola said, adding that operations in Canada are running normally.

“The company is working diligently to complete the investigation and restore the systems and impacted operations,” Coca-Cola said.

Coca-Cola purchased Fairlife from Select Milk Producers in 2020 for roughly $7 billion. It’s among the company’s 200 brands across its soft drinks, waters and hydration, coffee and tea, juices and hydration and alcohol categories.

Coca-Cola says that annual sales from Fairlife, whose products include milk and protein shakes, top $3 billion.