Toyota will restart domestic production starting Wednesday after a cyberattack on a supplier brought the auto giant’s factories to a standstill for a day, sparking concerns about a vulnerability in the Japanese economy’s supply chain.
No information was available on who was behind the attack or why. It came shortly after Japan joined Western allies in cracking down on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, although it was unknown if the attack was related.
Cybersecurity has emerged as a major area of concern in Japan, where government critics say responses to hacking threats have been hampered by a fractured approach, with an attack on a vendor previously obscure enough to take away one of the most powerful manufacturers. of the world to a domestic standstill.
Toyota’s production lines will restart at its 14 factories across the country on Wednesday, the company said in a statement. Tuesday’s suspension hit production of about 13,000 vehicles.
Kojima Industries Corp, which supplies plastic parts and electronics to the automaker, said it discovered an error in one of its file servers Saturday night.
After restarting the server, he confirmed he had been infected with a virus and encountered a threatening message, it said in a separate statement.
The message was written in English, a spokesman for Kojima told Reuters, but declined to elaborate.
A system glitch disrupted communication with Toyota about parts orders and led to a halt in production at the automaker, Kojima said.
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Government ministers said they are following the incident closely. While large companies have cybersecurity measures in place, the government is concerned about small or medium-sized subcontractors, Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda told reporters on Tuesday.
Underscoring those fears, a low-level maker of water pumps and other auto parts, GMB Corp 7214.T, said its server was also targeted by unauthorized access suspected to be ransomware over the weekend. It was unclear when all operations would fully return to normal, she said.
Reports of the powerful Emotet malware being used have increased since the first week of February 2022, according to the Japan Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center, which provides information on cybersecurity.
Emotet is used to gain access to a victim’s computer before downloading additional malicious software such as those designed to steal banking passwords or ransomware that can lock down a computer until an extortion fee is paid.
It was unclear whether Emotet was used at the Toyota supplier. Toyota declined to comment on whether it detected early signs of a potential cyberattack or whether Emotet was responsible for bringing its operation to a standstill.
Kojima only supplies Toyota and is a first-tier supplier of some parts and a second-tier supplier of others, a Kojima spokesperson said.
Toyota’s operations in Japan span a supply chain of 60,000 companies on four levels.
Toyota said it would be able to resume operation by accessing a backup network between itself and the supplier. It would take a week or two to completely restore the system, he said.
In November 2020, Japanese video game maker Capcom, which makes games like Resident Evil, said a ransomware attack likely compromised personal information of up to 350,000 players, and some of its own financial data was stolen.
Source: CNN Brasil
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