Paper Excellence plans to recall about 200 workers laid off last spring when its Catalyst mill was shut down.
The paper mill shut down partly due to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a global decline in demand for paper. But this coincided with a virus of a different kind -- a computer virus.
The Catalyst paper mill in Powell River – now owned by Paper Excellence – was shut down last spring. The mill employs more than 300 people.
On February 19, 2020, management became aware that the operation had been attacked.
“We were attacked with malware, which impacted many, many servers and our ability to be able to manufacture products because we couldn’t see our customer orders and things like that,” said Graham Kissack, vice president of communications for Paper Excellence.
“It had a very material impact on our ability to manufacture,” he said. “Unfortunately, it coincided with almost identically when we were being hit by the global effects of COVID.”
The attack is still subject to an investigation, but it is clear that the attack did not come from some lone-wolf hacker.
“They managed to get into our network in general, and once they were in there, they had the expertise to know exactly what they would target and how they would target it," Kissack said. "And we’re not the only folks that have been hit by this. It’s every month or two you hear about another large organization somewhere in North America that’s been targeted by offshore interests.
“I don’t think it’s competitors, I don’t think it’s formal governments,” Kissack said. “But I also don’t think it’s kids chewing bubble gum in their mom’s basement. Whoever it was, it’s people that have some pretty substantial capability.”
The pandemic resulted in a general economic slowdown that decreased the demand for the kinds of paper the Powell River mill produced. But the demand has picked back up, so on May 1, the company plans to restart one of its two paper machines and recall about 200 workers.
“Hopefully we get to the point where we can restart the second machine as well, as the global recovery continues,” Kissack said.
