Toyota temporarily suspends car production in Japan after cyber attack at supplier

Toyota has halted production at all of its Japanese car plants. The company is doing this after a cyber attack at a major supplier, writes the Japanese business newspaper Nikkei. Toyota hopes to resume production on Wednesday.

Toyota writes on its website that on Tuesday it was decided to shut down 28 production lines in 14 Japanese car factories. The company refers to a ‘system failure’ at supplier Kojima Industries, which supplies various parts to Toyota, both for the interior and the exterior of cars. Toyota says it hopes to be able to deliver vehicles to customers as soon as possible. The carmaker writes that it wants to resume work on Wednesday.

The carmaker does not name a concrete cause of the ‘system failure’, but an employee of Kojima Industries tells Nikkei that it is a cyber attack. The supplier said Tuesday morning that it had received “a message” demanding a ransom, the newspaper writes. It appears to be ransomware. Nikkei also writes that Hino Motors and Daihatsu are also temporarily suspending their activities at certain factories.

It is not yet known who is behind the attack. An employee of Kojima Industries tells the Japanese newspaper that it is still making an inventory of the damage. The Japanese government is said to be involved in the investigation.