Mackay Sugar mills shut by cyber attack hope to reopen next week

A north Queensland sugar miller crippled by a cybersecurity attack says it hopes to resume production next week.

Mackay Sugar shut down two of its three mills at Farleigh and Racecourse early Wednesday morning after finding operating systems had been compromised.

The company said it was progressively restoring critical systems and anticipated a staged resumption of harvesting and crushing operations from next week.

"Specialist cyber security experts continue to work alongside our teams and relevant authorities to investigate the incident and restore systems safely," the statement said.

The company said it had reported the incident to authorities.

"We recognise the impact this incident is having on our growers, and we are doing everything we can to support them and to safely resume full operations as soon as possible."

Race to process cut cane

Mackay Sugar said it had recommenced limited manual crushing at the Farleigh Mill to process cane harvested before the cyber attack.

Sugar cane must be processed within a set period after being harvested to avoid the loss of sugar content.

"While some operations have resumed in a controlled manner, key cane supply and logistics systems remain subject to ongoing restoration and no additional cane is being accepted at our mills at this stage," the company said.

"Our immediate focus remains the safety of our people, protecting operational systems, and maintaining business continuity."

Tony Bugeja has 330 hectares under cane on the family property at Palmyra near Mackay.

The second-generation cane farmer said he was due to start harvesting on Thursday, and the delay caused by the cyber attack was concerning.

"Looking at it, we're going to lose at least a week," he said.

He said it was important to begin harvesting as early as possible to take advantage of high sugar levels and purity, which helped offset a lower sugar price.

"I'm sure everybody is in the same vein," he said.

"We need to get it off as soon as possible."

Threat to regional communities growing

Jason King, a former Australian Federal Police officer with 15 years' experience with cybercrime, said hackers were a growing threat to regional communities.

"They go outside the cities now because we have got big infrastructure here; we have got power stations, we have got the sugar industry," he said.

"It's not [a risk] just to metropolitan areas, it's worldwide."

Mr King believed Mackay Sugar's extensive infrastructure, including its three sugar mills, made it an attractive target.

"You've got so many different players; workers, sugar growers, cane trains, so many different elements to its operation," he said.

"[A cyber attack] can bring the industry to its knees."

Growers told to manage expectations

Canegrowers Mackay chairman Joseph Borg said he had been advised Mackay Sugar was working towards having all three mills running "in the latter half of next week".

Mr Borg said cane farmers had been warned not to expect too much, too early.

"It is an ongoing, ever-moving situation, albeit very slow-moving.

"They have made significant progress this morning".

Mackay Sugar is Australia's second-largest raw sugar producer, with almost 1,300 mainly family owned farms supplying its three mills.

The company typically processes about 700,000 tonnes of raw sugar a year.