Japan: Toyota halts production over possible cyberattack

It's still unclear who carried out the attack and the motive behind it.

According to a media report, Toyota had to temporarily shut down all 14 of its factories in Japan on March 1, 2022, after one of its main suppliers, Kojima Industries Corporation, became the latest victim of a cyberattack.

The shutdown affected both the first and second shifts, costing Toyota a loss of 13,000 vehicles. The factories are said to resume production from March 2, 2022.

It's still unclear who carried out the attack and the motive behind it.

Reports did suggest that the government officials are looking into the incident closely.

Kojima Industries Corporation supplies Toyota with plastic parts and other electronic components. In a separate statement, the company stated that it discovered an error in one of the file servers, which, upon rebooting, was confirmed to be infected with a virus & a threatening message.

Also, since Toyota doesn't stockpile its components, the system failure at Kojima brought about a shortage, causing the automaker to pause production.

Source: Reuters