Toyota Motors halted production due to a cyber attack on a supplier

Japanese carmaker Toyota Motors was forced to stop car production due to a cyberattack against one of its suppliers.

Japanese carmaker Toyota Motors was forced to halt its production due to a cyber attack that suffered by one of its suppliers, Kojima Industries.

“It is true that we have been hit by some kind of cyberattack. We are still confirming the damage and we are hurrying to respond, with the top priority of resuming Toyota’s production system as soon as possible.” an official close to Kojima Industries told Nikkei.

Kojima Industries is a business partner of Toyota Motor Corporation, it provides interior and exterior automotive plastic components.

“Due to a system failure at a domestic supplier (KOJIMA INDUSTRIES CORPORATION), we have decided to suspend the operation of 28 lines at 14 plants in Japan on Tuesday, March 1st (both 1st and 2nd shifts). We apologize to our relevant suppliers and customers for any inconvenience this may cause.” reads the announcement published by Toyota motors. “We will also continue to work with our suppliers in strengthening the supply chain and make every effort to deliver vehicles to our customers as soon as possible.”

In response to the incident, the company decided to suspend the operation of 28 production lines in 14 plants in Japan, starting from tomorrow, March 1, 2022.

According to NikkeiAsia, the shutdown will affect the production of around 13,000 vehicles or 4% to 5% of Toyota’s monthly output in Japan.

The shutdown will also impact Toyota’s subsidiaries Daihatsu Motors and Hino Motors, but at this time it is not clear the impact on the productions of both carmakers. Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motors announced that they will shut down a three plants.

The hypothesis of the attack was also reported by local media, according to Tokyo NP website, Kojima was hit by a cyberattack.

“The government is confirming the actual situation.” said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Kishida did not link the attack to Russia

“He declined to state that his relationship with Russia was “difficult to answer without confirmation.” reported Tokyo NP website. “It is believed that this is the first time Toyota has shut down all plants due to a system failure at a supplier. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has begun investigating the possibility of a cyber attack.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, SIM swapping)