This virus is the same one that infected over one million machines worldwide after taking advantage of security holes in some Microsoft products. According to a Honda spokesperson, about 1,000 units were not produced as planned at the plant when WannaCry attacked several older production line computers, causing them to shut down. The Sayama plant produces models such as the Accord sedan and Odyssey and StepWagon minivan models.
Production at other Honda plants had not been affected with regular operations resuming at the Sayama plant this week. Honda discovered that the virus had infected networks across Japan, Europe, North America and China, despite moves to secure its systems in mid-May when WannaCry caused widespread disruption worldwide.
Nissan and Renault were also affected by the cyber attack last month, forcing them to temporarily stop production at plants in Japan, Britain, India, France and Romania.
WannaCry has infected companies using aging technology and outdated software and this appears to be what transpired at Honda’s Sayama plant.
Cyber security company Kryptos Logic said last week that it had dealt with 60 million infection attempts from WannaCry of the past month.
Intelligence agencies have linked the virus infections to a hacking group associated with North Korea and say that the threat of further attacks still looms.
