Clorox products in short supply after cyberattack disrupts operations

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

NEW YORK - A cyberattack at Clorox is causing wide-scale disruption of the company's operations, hampering its ability to make its cleaning materials, Clorox said Monday.

Clorox said some of its products are now in short supply as it has struggled to meet consumer demand during the disruption. Clorox didn't specify which of its products are affected.

The company on Monday revealed in a regulatory filing that it detected unauthorized activity in some of its information technology systems in August. Clorox said it immediately took action to stop the attack, including reducing its operations. It now believes the attack has been contained.

Still, Clorox has not been able to get its manufacturing operations back up to full speed. The company said it is fulfilling and processing orders manually. The company doesn't expect to begin the process of returning to normal operations until next week.

"Clorox has already resumed production at the vast majority of its manufacturing sites and expects the ramp up to full production to occur over time," the company said. "At this time, the company cannot estimate how long it will take to resume fully normalized operations."

The company said the cyberattack and the delays will hurt its current-quarter financial results materially, although Clorox said determining any longer-term impact would be premature, "given the ongoing recovery."

Clorox (CLX) shares fell about 2% in early trading. The company makes a number of well-known household staples, including bleach, detergents and cleaners.

Similarly, a suspected cyberattack halted operations at MGM Resorts last week that affected large swaths of its business, including guests being unable to make room charges and access their rooms with their digital keys.