Security News > 2022 > March > Bridgestone Hit as Ransomware Torches Toyota Supply Chain

On Friday, Bridgestone Corp. admitted that a subsidiary experienced a ransomware attack in February, prompting it to shut down the computer network and production at its factories in North and Middle America for about a week, said Reuters.

Manufacturers like Toyota, already hampered by supply chain shortages, are proving to be particularly attractive targets for ransomware groups.

Late last month, within hours of Japan having joined Western allies in blocking some Russian banks from accessing the SWIFT international payment system and committing to giving Ukraine $100 million in emergency aid, a spokesperson at Toyota supplier Kojima Industries Corp. said that it had apparently been hit by "Some kind of cyber attack," causing Toyota to shut down about a third of the company's global production.

"As part of our investigation," they wrote, "We have learned that the threat actor has followed a pattern of behavior common to attacks of this type by removing information from a limited number of Bridgestone systems and threatening to make this information public." Indeed, the Lockbit ransomware group claimed the attack for themselves.

The global supply chain has enabled manufacturers to be incredibly efficient in their day-to-day operations.

"With ransomware attacks hitting major suppliers and companies like Bridgestone and Toyota, now is the time for enterprises to prioritize their cyber asset management strategy," Keith Neilson of CloudSphere told Threatpost via email.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/bridgestone-hit-as-ransomware-torches-toyota-supply-chain/178998/