It is not often that a ransomware attack or cyberattack is wholly responsible for a business failing. With each such claim that is investigated, we sometimes find that an entity was already in financial distress and the attack may just have been one stress too many.

Maike Krebber reports:

A cyberattack has potentially serious consequences for the approximately 240 employees of the Euskirchen-based company Fasana: The attack caused so much damage to the paper napkin manufacturer that it has now filed for insolvency. On May 21, attackers penetrated the company’s systems. An employee who arrived at the company in the morning even found extortion notes in the printers.

Read more at WDR about the impact of the encryption attack from as-yet unnamed threat actors.

In related coverage, citing a paywalled report in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger newspaper, Golem indicates that the attack occurred on May 19 (not May 21 as reported by WDR?). All IT systems, including PCs and laptops, were reportedly paralyzed:

According to one employee, orders worth more than €250,000 could not be executed on the day following the cyberattack alone. The report states that no significant revenue was generated in the following two weeks. Fasana was only able to process the orders stored in the machines.

Following the attack, the company reportedly had to collect, examine, and reconfigure approximately 190 PCs and laptops. Some applications were still not functional even three weeks after the incident.

Of relevance, perhaps, the company had been acquired by Powerparc AG in March. It is reportedly once again seeking a buyer.