Nissan Carmaker Hit by Cyber Attack

The manufacturing plant of Nissan located in Sunderland, Northeast England, has been distressed by a cyber-attack that hit an estimate of a minimum of 200,000 computers in different countries, a Nissan spokesperson confirmed. 

The Europol (European Union’s Law Enforcement Agency) said that the computers have been infected and it is through a ransomware attack. There were a number of organizations and companies around the world that were targeted by the said cyber-attack. Nissan is one of these. Fortuitously, the spokesperson pronounced that the Nissan team is responding appropriately and there has been no significant impact on the business. However, the situation at the plant is still being constantly monitored should there be succeeding attempts.

The attack, known as Wannacry, began on Friday and the cyber criminals tricked the victims by enticing them to open malicious malware attachments. They sent email messages that appear to be legitimate such as security warnings, invoices, other legitimate files and even job offerings. The other known companies which were greatly affected are Renault, Fedex as well as Britain’s health system.

The normal operations resumed on Monday, May 15, 2017, after production ceased on Friday even. The day’s work pushed through as usual on Monday morning. A spokesperson situated at Yokohama, conveyed via email, “While our teams are addressing some localized issues, it’s business as usual today.”

Cyber security experts are saying that the magnitude of the attacks can get worse as the affected businesses would start a fresh working week. Despite of the expansiveness of the attacks the hackers only made around $50,000 ransoms in bitcoin.

However, after the attacks, Toyota and Honda retained at their Number 1 and 2 rankings, in that order. General Motors is seen overtaking Nissan, making it rank as the 3rd one in the list. The stocks of Nissan traded today by -1.44% to ¥1,092 which declined by 16 compared to Friday’s close.

The ransomware, locks down files until the ransom has been settled. The hackers demand for bitcoin to regain access of computer systems. It is a new form of cybercrime that rapidly spreads around the world today.

The spread of the malware Wannacry seems to have slackened a bit, however, experts believe that the threat is not yet over. 

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