The Canadian Copper Mountain Mining Corporation (CMMC) in British Columbia announced that it was the target of a ransomware attack that affected its operations.

CMMC, partly owned by Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, is an 18,000-acre claim that produces an average of 100 million pounds of copper per year and has an estimated mineral reserve capacity for another 32 years old.

The cyberattack targeting the company happened late on December 27, 2022 and the company’s IT team responded quickly by implementing the predefined risk management systems and protocols.

To contain the incident, CMMC isolated the infected systems and disassembled other parts to thoroughly examine them and determine the impact of the ransomware attack.

CMMC engineers had to shut down the plant as a precaution to determine the status of its control system, while other processes moved to manual operations.

“The company’s external and internal IT teams continue to assess risks and are actively establishing additional safeguards to mitigate any additional risk to the company,” it read. the announcement on the CMMC website.

CMMC’s announcement clarifies that the cybersecurity incident did not compromise security measures or cause environmental damage.

The main priority for the company at this time is to resume normal operations as soon as possible, limiting the financial impact of the incident.

An interesting detail discovered by BleepingComputer with the help of cyber intelligence company KELA is that a cybercriminal offered to sell account credentials belonging to a CMMC employee on a hacker market on December 13, 2022.

Given the close dates between the credentials going on sale and the disclosure of the ransomware attack, it’s likely that the hackers used a compromised account to gain a foothold on the company’s network.