WannaCry Ransomware Shuts Down Honda Factory, Escalating Attacks

Experts did say that the WannaCry ransomware attacks are only going to get worse and boy were they right. In a recent incident, infection by the malicious worm forced Honda to shut down one of its factories in Japan. The plant was only closed for a day, but that could potentially translate to huge losses. It also highlights the destructive nature of this ransomware that originated from the NSA.

The incident occurred on Wednesday when Honda announced that its computer network at the plant in Sayama was taken over by the ransomware, Reuters reports. The factory is a major resource of car models such as the Accord and the Odyssey Minivan. With a daily output of over 1,000 vehicles, shutting the plant down for a day has a minimal, but still relevant impact.

It would appear that the company actually made the discovery last Sunday when it found that its computers in regions all across the globe were infected with WannaCry. These include factories in North America, China, and Europe. According to a spokesperson, Honda had tried to secure its networks back in May but failed to catch all of the infected computers.

Keeping the cause for such an oversight a secret, engineers at the company are not saying how they could have missed the presence of the ransomware in their systems a full 37 days after the last attack, Ars Technica reports. One possible answer that’s being floated around is that the system may have actually blocked the domain that contained the kill-switch, thus making the network more prone to infection.

This incident is also indicative of a failure on Honda’s part to install the patch that Microsoft had already released for its operating systems XP and up. If so, this would be highly negligent on the car company’s part, or at least that of its engineers.