Americold, a leading cold storage and logistics company, has been struggling with IT issues since its network was hacked on Tuesday evening.

The company said it contained the attack and is currently investigating the incident which also affected operations by customer and employee reports.

It also estimated that its systems will be down until at least next week, according to a memo seen by BleepingComputer and sent to customers earlier this week.

“Americold continues to assess the intrusion that occurred Tuesday evening / Wednesday morning. We have contained the intrusion and shut down our network to ensure there is no risk to uncontained areas or customers We are still in the discovery process on our way to rebuilding the affected systems,” the cold storage giant said.

“At this time, we expect a scenario to be restored by the middle of next week. As we continue to work to understand the level at which data will be recovered, we may adjust our planned timeline for the restart and provide updated accordingly.”

No incoming and outgoing deliveries

Americold has asked customers to cancel all “inbound” deliveries beyond next week and to reschedule all but the most critical departures reaching expiration dates.

“In the meantime, you are requested to cancel all past inbounds next week. Outbounds will continue to be very limited in manual capabilities, so we would like to request that all non-critical outbounds be pushed back and rescheduled with your SR site at a later date,” Americold said.

“Critical releases should include products that are likely to reach an expiration date.

“We sincerely appreciate your company as we continue to work on this issue and limit the impact to our customers across the network.”

The company did not release an official statement on the incident or provide details of the attack in the memo sent to customers.

However, Americold’s focus on rebuilding impacted systems and assessing recoverable data suggests that a ransomware attack is likely the cause.

A spokesperson for Americold was not immediately available for comment when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today.

Also violated in 2020

In November 2020, Americold was hit by another cyberattack affecting its operations, including telephone systems, email, inventory management and order fulfillment.

As BleepingComputer said at the time by multiple sources, the November 2020 incident was a ransomware attack.

The company has yet to confirm this, and the ransomware operation behind the attack remains unknown.

Americold owns and operates 245 temperature-controlled warehouses in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America, with the help of nearly 17,000 employees worldwide.