Cyber Attack At Honda Stops Production After WannaCry Worm Strikes

Peter Lyon ,  

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In a career that spans nearly 30 years, I have written about automobiles, innovation, games, luxury lifestyles, travel and food. Based in Tokyo since 1988, I have scribbled about all things Japanese for publications including Car and Driver, Edmunds, Top Gear, Autocar, The Sydney Morning Herald and Herald Sun. I have published a book on Japanese car culture in Japanese and plan to get an English version out soon. I also host a weekly TV show about cars called 'Samurai Wheels' on the country’s national broadcaster NHK World. In 2010, I placed 4th in class in the Nurburgring 24-hour race in Germany co-driving a Lexus IS-F and in 2011, my team came 2nd in the annual Mazda MX-5 Media 4-hour race in Japan.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

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Honda was forced to halt production at its Sayama plant after WannaCry virus struck. Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

The WannaCry worm is still alive. Honda said this week that it was forced to halt production for one day at its Sayama plant near Tokyo after finding the WannaCry ransomware in its computer network.
This virus is the same one that infected over one million machines worldwide after taking advantage of security holes in some Microsoft products. According to a Honda spokesperson, about 1,000 units were not produced as planned at the plant when WannaCry attacked several older production line computers, causing them to shut down. The Sayama plant produces models such as the Accord sedan and Odyssey and StepWagon minivan models.
Production at other Honda plants had not been affected with regular operations resuming at the Sayama plant this week. Honda discovered that the virus had infected networks across Japan, Europe, North America and China, despite moves to secure its systems in mid-May when WannaCry caused widespread disruption worldwide.

Nissan and Renault were also affected by the cyber attack last month, forcing them to temporarily stop production at plants in Japan, Britain, India, France and Romania.
WannaCry has infected companies using aging technology and outdated software and this appears to be what transpired at Honda’s Sayama plant.
Cyber security company Kryptos Logic said last week that it had dealt with 60 million infection attempts from WannaCry of the past month.
Intelligence agencies have linked the virus infections to a hacking group associated with North Korea and say that the threat of further attacks still looms.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2017/06/22/cyber-attack-at-honda-stops-production-after-wannacry-worm-strikes/#32fc967a5e2b