Bridgeston reports ransomware attack on US subsidiary after Toyota reports similar incident

Japanese tire maker Bridgestone said on Friday that its US subsidiary had been attacked by ransomware, a few weeks after suppliers of similar attacks were reported by carmaker Toyota Motor’s suppliers.

Bridgeston said in a statement on February 27 that unauthorized third-party access was made to Bridgestone Americas, prompting it to shut down its computer network. He later said he had reconnected to the network after a thorough security check.

A later investigation revealed that it was a ransomware attack, Bridgeston said.

The announcement comes about two weeks after Toyota’s main supplier, Denso, detected an unauthorized access through a ransomware attack on a German company that manages sales and engineering.

Another Toyota supplier was hit by a cyber-attack late last month, and Japan’s largest automaker shut down domestic production for a day on March 1, affecting the production of about 13,000 vehicles.

© Thomson Reuters 2022