[BreachExchange] Boeing production plant hit with WannaCry ransomware attack

[Audrey McNeil]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/boeing-production-plant-hit-with-
wannacry-ransomware-attack/ar-AAvdOcO

A Boeing production plant in Charleston, South Carolina was hit by the
WannaCry ransomwear cyberattack on Wednesday, according to a report from
the Seattle Times. Mike VanderWel, the chief engineer at Boeing Commercial
Airplane production engineering, sent out a company-wide memo calling for
“all hands on deck.”

“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777
(automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,” reads VanderWel’s
memo, according to the Seattle Times. The company worries the virus may hit
equipment used in functional airplane tests, which could lead to it
spreading to airplane software.

WannaCry, which the Trump administration blames on the cyberterrorism unit
of North Korea as of December 2017, attacked mainly via a critical Windows
vulnerability, and its spread starting last May caused widespread alarm,
with hospitals in the UK crippled in the initial wave of the attack.
Variants of the virus then began popping up in more than 150 countries mere
weeks later.

The virus operated by locking down machines, prompting system owners to pay
a ransom typically in cryptocurrency to resolve the issue. Microsoft has
issued patches to limit the virus’ spread, but that apparently has not
completely eliminated it.
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