Renault and Nissan production delays due to global cyber attack

Renault and Nissan‘s Sunderland production facility has been the victim of a global cyber attack, causing costly production delays.

The global cyber attack began late last week and has so far affected more than 75,000 systems in 100 countries.

The attack hits vulnerable Microsoft Windows machines and encrypts the user’s filesystem, taking it ransom. The user is asked to pay a fee of US$300 to have their computer unlocked.

While the attack can easily be prevented by updating the operating system, many automated machines and dumb terminals connected to the internet are being infiltrated.

A Renault spokesperson told Autocar, “Groupe Renault confirms it was impacted by the global cyber attack that began late on Friday May 12. It consists of a Ransomware virus. Proactive measures were taken immediately in order to stop the spread of the Virus and protect the group,” the spokesperson said.

“A full diagnosis is in progress in order to put in place the appropriate solutions to resume operations.”

To date it was mainly state owned organisations affected. Other affected parties have included the UK NHS, Russian state-owned rail services and now companies in the manufacturing sector.

The attack was accidentally thwarted by an IT consultant that registered a domain used to stop the attack, but computers infected prior to the domain registration and computers yet to be patched are still at risk.

Have you or anybody you know been affected by this ransomware? Would you pay to have your computer unlocked?