Wood-Mode LLC employees back to work next week

Marcia Moore, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
Updated ·2 min read

Jan. 27—KREAMER — All 550 Wood-Mode LLC employees will be back to work Thursday, three weeks after production at the Kreamer plant was shut down by a computer virus.

"We're still working through some of the internal network connections, but we've notified all employees to return to work next week," general manager Rod Hunter said Friday.

A virus infected all 43 of the custom cabinet manufacturing company's computer servers on Jan. 10, causing the plant shutdown the next day.

A team of nine specialists were hired to rebuild the servers, restore deleted data and reinstall software, said Hunter.

In total, about $250,000 was spent by the company to restore, rebuild and add additional security measures to the computer network, he said.

"The good news is our information was not compromised," Hunter said.

On Monday, he said, office and some manufacturing employees will return to work and on Thursday all remaining employees will be back at the plant.

During the plant shutdown, Hunter said, orders continued to be processed and none were canceled. "Unfortunately we've experienced this before with COVID and the state shutdown for six weeks," he said.

Wood-Mode's response to the situation demonstrates the company's "resiliency," said Bob Garrett, president and CEO of Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The message of maintaining a secure computer network is timely, he said, with Saturday being worldwide Data Privacy Day, which Garrett addressed in a newsletter sent out to members this week.

"We talk about the importance of data and having strong passwords" as several Valley companies have had to address computer hacking, he said.

"It was the number one topic at our innovation conference in December," Garrett said of computer hacking and viruses being the main discussion at the annual meeting hosted by the chamber. "This isn't a big (company) or little (company) issue. It impacts everyone."

Snyder County Board Chairman Joe Kantz said companies and municipalities across the commonwealth are experiencing rising costs due to the need for increased cyber security, a topic raised at Friday's County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania conference in Harrisburg.

"We're seeing double-digit increases in liability insurance," he said. "And just think about what it cost (Wood-Mode LLC) to be down for three weeks."