Australia’s largest gold producer hit by ransomware attack
Australia’s largest gold producer has revealed that its IT systems were affected by a ransomware attack last week.
Evolution Mining, which produced more than 650,000 ounces of gold in fiscal years 2022-23, announced to the ASX that on August 8, 2024 it detected a ransomware attack affecting its systems.
“[Evolution Mining Limited] has been working with its external cyber forensic experts to investigate the incident,” the company said in an ASX announcement yesterday (August 12).
“Based on the work performed to date, the company believes the incident is now contained.
“The incident was managed proactively with a focus on protecting the health, safety and privacy of individuals, along with company systems and data.”
Evolution Mining added that it does not believe the incident has “any material impact on operations”, but added that it has notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
The company posted an after-tax profit of $158 million in 2023.
As of this writing, no ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack or been identified.
The attack comes just as other Australian mining organizations have suffered ransomware attacks.
In June, Australian rare earth metals producer Northern Minerals confirmed it had suffered a ransomware attack.
The incident was claimed by the Bian Lian ransomware gang, which listed the group on its dark web leak site, claiming to have operational data, data related to potential projects and competitor investigations, financial data, personal data of employees , data on shareholders and potential investors and more.
Later that month, a second rare earth metals producer announced that threat actors had attempted to breach its systems.
Iluka Resources said the threat actors successfully carried out a denial of service (DoS) attack; They were unable to access the company’s systems.
While the threat actor was not identified, the attack came just as Iluka Resources managing director Tom O’Leary denounced China, claiming the country was manipulating rare earth metal prices to minimize threats. profits obtained by producers and gain a greater presence in the world’s mineral resources.
“This is being carried out through a series of binding purchase agreements with various companies, and through ownership, as in the well-documented case of Northern Minerals,” he said, continuing that Chinese state entities were attempting to control mineral deposits and production of rare metals in Australia, specifically in Victoria and Western Australia.
As a result, no producer of rare earth minerals makes a profit, he said.
“No player, regardless of geography, is making money at current prices,” he said.
