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Cyber-attack forces Honda to halt production at a few of its factories

Investigators believe that the virus was a type of ransomware called Snake

by Gulf Business

June 10, 2020

Japan’s Honda Motor Company was subjected to a cyber-attack, most likely a ransomware attack, that forced it to suspend some of its operations.

Honda said in a press release that there was no evidence to suggest that data had been exfiltrated. “We have resumed production at most factories.”

Investigators believe that the virus that struck Honda’s systems is a type of ransomware called Snake.

Typically, the hacker encrypts all the data from the victim and then extorts them by offering to decrypt it for a sum of money.

“IT teams around the world and across the North American region are constantly working to contain this attack and restore normal business operations as quickly as possible, but at the same time many business processes that rely on information systems have been affected,” said Honda.

While Honda states that some factories have begun to return to work again, car owners were unable to pay online or access the company’s customer service site, according to a tweets by a number of these customers.

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.

— Honda Automobile Customer Service (@HondaCustSvc) June 8, 2020

An employee at one of Honda’s largest customer and service offices in North America added that many employees with temporary contracts were not being paid while the offices were closed.

It should be noted that the ransom attack is one of several types of methods that hackers use in cyber-attacks targeting international companies and organisations.

One of the most famous ransomware programmes that struck systems around the world was the WannaCry virus which infected thousands of personal and institutional computers, with Egypt being one of the worst-affected countries within the region.

This story originally appeared on MENA Tech