Honda Japan plant shuts for a day following cyber attack

The same WannaCry ransomware that attacked the NHS and other UK organisations brought Honda’s Sayama plant to a standstill this week. 

The brand closed its plant for a day, reports Reuters, after the malware was found in its computers, Renault and Nissan were previously affected by the software when it came to the fore earlier this year.

Honda’s Sayama plant, which deals with the production of the Accord, Odyssey and Stepwgn, was shut in total for one day as Honda dealt with the issue internally. 

The WannaCry software steals and encrypts files and documents, before demanding a fee of $300 (around £230) to de-crypt them. In total, around 75,000 systems in 99 countries are believed to have been affected; the majority of these were attacked during the same week in May. 

Mike Ahmadi, global director of critical systems security at Synopsys, said: "A plant shutdown can cost millions of dollars per day in lost production and, in any event, is likely to far exceed the cost of the ransom. Attackers are likely to apply risk management techniques to their attacks going forward that will serve to help them get the most return for each attack. 

“I am not saying this is what happened here, but once attacks become financially motivated, this becomes more likely. Organisations need to prepare accordingly."

A Honda UK spokesman said: "In the evening on Sunday 18th June, Honda discovered that the computer systems in several plants across the world were affected by the ransomware virus Wannacry.  As a results, production of Sayama Automobile Plant in Japan were affected by approximate 1000 units. The recovery work was undertaken immediately, and the production at Sayama has resumed in the morning on 20 June. At this moment, there is no further impact confirmed, but we will continue to monitor the situation and take every step to further strengthen the security of our systems.”