Interesting news today from the Honda Motor Company, as the Japanese manufacturer has stated that its global operations have been affected by a cyber attack on its computer systems.
Honda isn’t saying too much about the situation right now, other than it is affecting email and internal systems. But, Honda is also reporting that the cyber attack has impacted production outside of Japan.
That latter point might be a a tip-off though that Honda is experiencing issues with ransomware, which is targeted less-secure industrial equipment, and spread from there.
Honda has some experience with this sort of thing already, falling victim to the WannaCry virus in July 2017, which shutdown some car production in the company’s Japan operations
With the WannaCry virus (which exploited a bug in the Microsoft Windows operating system), computers become locked down, with their information encrypted. Victims are then prompted to pay a ransom to the virus’s creator, usually in the form of Bitcoin, in order to regain access to the machine.
Presumably the same is happening now, with the Ekans malware the likely suspect.
Right now, Honda is saying that the virus has not impacted its business operations. Though, the company’s Honda Automobile Customer Service Twitter account seems to contradict that message, sending the following tweet this morning about the situation:
“At this time Honda Customer Service and Honda Financial Services are experiencing technical difficulties and are unavailable. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Talking to the BBC, Honda confirmed that work at the British plant in Swindon had been halted, along with other operations in North America, Turkey, Italy and Japan.
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