Northern Engraving: Rapid Ransomware Response and Recovery with HBS

Organization: Northern Engraving
Industry: Manufacturing
Facilities: Multi-site U.S. operations
Solution: Incident Response & Cybersecurity

When a ransomware attack hit Northern Engraving during a facility shutdown in Grand Rapids, Michigan, it threatened to disrupt business across multiple sites. With critical systems encrypted and business operations grinding to a halt, Northern Engraving turned to HBS for immediate incident response. The result: containment, recovery, and a stronger cybersecurity posture for the future.

THE NEED

Emergency response to a widespread ransomware attack, recovery of critical systems and long-term resilience to prevent future incidents.

THE SOLUTION

HBS delivered rapid ransomware containment, recovery of a legacy SQL inventory database, and implementation of new backups, disaster recovery, and monitoring systems.

THE OUTCOMES

» Contained ransomware spread

» Recoverd critical inventory database

» Strengthened long-term cybersecurity infrastructure

The Challenge: A Ransomware Attack at the Worst Possible Time

In May 2023, Northern Engraving was in the process of decommissioning an older facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That site housed aging infrastructure and legacy systems—including a server containing factory inventory scan data.

Then came the alert: ransomware signatures were detected on multiple machines.

Business operations were halted. For a manufacturing company, every hour of downtime has real impact—and pressure was high to respond quickly and effectively.

Ransomware is a huge impact to any business. Business operations are shut down, especially for manufacturing clients. They need to be up quickly and they put a lot of pressure on us to make sure that it is done—and an important part of what we do is making sure that it’s done securely as well as quickly.

Solution: Containment, Recovery, and Strategic Partnership

Northern Engraving called HBS immediately. The HBS cybersecurity team jumped into action.

Step 1: Contain the Threat

HBS worked with Northern Engraving to isolate systems, segment the network, and prevent further spread of the ransomware—stopping the bleeding before initiating recovery efforts.

Step 2: Recover What Matters Most

One critical system stood out: a legacy SQL Server holding scan data from devices on the factory floor. When attempts to access the data failed, an HBS engineer took the physical server home, hacked into it, and recovered the database—returning it the very next day. Northern Engraving’s team reestablished the system and resumed scanning operations within hours.

Northern Engraving was unable to access an old SQL server database that housed all the scanning information for inventory—any device that was on the factory floor went into this scanning database server. I was able to recover the SQL database, brought it back the very next day and their on-site support specialist was able to reestablish the database and Northern Engraving started scanning within a couple of hours.

Step 3: Fortify for the Future

With operations stabilized, HBS helped Northern Engraving implement new backups, disaster recovery, extra hardware and 24×7 monitoring systems. These proactive measures gave the company new confidence in its security posture.

Results: Back in Business and Better Protected

Rapid Response
HBS moved quickly to stop the attack, restore operations, and recover vital data—minimizing downtime and getting manufacturing back online.

Stronger Cybersecurity
Northern Engraving now has improved backup strategies, DR plans, endpoint monitoring, and threat detection. The organization is better equipped to prevent future attacks and respond with confidence.

Trusted Partnership
From early-morning alerts to hands-on recovery and long-term strategy, HBS served as a true partner—ensuring both speed and security every step of the way.

Now we have extra backups. We have a DR that we've been working with. We have extra hardware. We have monitoring systems in place that we did not have before. Having resources from HBS that were able to touch every computer—make sure that they were ok and is verified—all while watching the back door to make sure no bad actors were coming in after the fact. That has allowed me to focus on the core infrastructure and that's where HBS has been a critical partner."

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