Wood Mode close to full operations
Wood-Mode

The high-tech equipment at Wood Mode will be running at full operations after closing for more than three weeks after a computer virus forced a shutdown,

KREAMER, Pa. — Operations at Wood Mode LLC are set to fully reopen on Feb. 2 after the Kreamer, Pa.-based custom cabinet manufacturing plant was forced to shut down due to a computer virus, After the more than three-week downtime, the company said the reopening will lead to increased production and staffing levels.

"Most importantly, all employees are scheduled to return to work {Thursday}," said Rod Hunter, Wood Mode general manager, "We had a great team in place that worked tirelessly to ensure that our downtime was as short as possible. I'm happy to report that not only is our production back up and running at a 15% increase, we are actually hiring and hope to increase our staff in the coming weeks." 

More than 500 Wood-Mode workers were laid off due to the suspected computer attack at the custom wood cabinet manufacturer.

The restart of operations has been staggered, with several employees returning to the office last week. A couple more from shipping and receiving returned Monday. All remaining employees will be back at work by Thursday.

Hunter said no orders were canceled during the shutdown and limited shipping of products took place.

The source of the virus is unknown, but he believes it originated overseas. It might have been in the system before it was detected, he said. Hunter believes it’s more than coincidental that the virus struck at 1 a.m. on Jan. 10, noting all the 1s.

The company confirmed that a group of specialists helped Wood Mode remove the virus, restore much of the lost data and install new security safeguards. About $250,000 was spent to restore, rebuild and add additional security measures to its computer network.

Hunter told the Lewistown Sentinel, that the company plans to store data off-site to make it easier to retrieve in the event of another virus. The company’s emails also have been made more secure and no information was compromised, he added.

The financial impact of the shutdown should be minimal since no orders were canceled. Employees were encouraged to apply for unemployment benefits.

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