How a cybersecurity attack at Clorox caused a Hidden Valley Ranch shortage

As someone living in the Midwest, the region trains you to be on alert for certain troubling phenomena: the right conditions for a tornado, impending winter weather and the potential for a shortage of ranch dressing. We’re past tornado season and not yet quite eying down freezing fronts this year, which is maybe why I paid a bit more attention than usual to rumors of a Hidden Valley Ranch dressing shortage on the corners of the particular internet that care about such things. “What fresh hell is this?” even one concerned resident wrote “Last week I noticed there were no dry packets of any of the Hidden Valley Ranch flavors — dips or dressing at my local. In addition to producing bleach and sanitizing products, The Clorox Company also owns brands like PineSol, Fresh Step cat litter and Hidden Valley Ranch. Representatives from the company have not commented on if it is known who carried out the cyberattack, but as a result of the attack, customers have started reporting shortages across the company’s brands: In September, the Washington Post reported that there was a cat litter shortage hitting the country; a day later, NPR warned listeners that they would have a harder time than usual finding Clorox wipes.