Renault Looks to Resume Production at Some Plants
15 May 2017 - 12:43AM
Dow Jones News
By Nick Kostov
PARIS--French auto maker Renault SA (RNO.FR) was scrambling
Sunday to resume operations at plants across Europe after its
computer systems were hit by a virus that swept the globe.
A Renault spokesman said the manufacturer was forced to halt
production at plants in France, Romania and Slovenia after the
firm's IT security team spotted the so-called "ransomware" worm in
its systems around midnight on Friday.
The virus takes advantage of security vulnerabilities in
Microsoft Corp. software that was either too old to be supported by
security patches, or hadn't been patched by users. The malware
scrambled files of infected computers, then promised to restore the
files after ransom payments by bitcoin of as little as $300 each.
Security experts have been able to track a small amount of bitcoin
transaction they say is linked to the attack and is likely ransom.
But it was impossible to say how many companies were paying.
Renault didn't pay a ransom, the spokesman said. Instead the
company moved to quarantine the virus by halting plants that use
Windows software or any other networks vulnerable to the malware.
Meanwhile, its cybersecurity team pored over company computer
systems, looking for where the virus penetrated its network.
"We don't know if the problem started in France or if it came
through Romania or Slovenia or somewhere else," the spokesman
said.
On Saturday night, the company began restoring operations at
some of the halted plants with the goal of getting nearly all of
the affected production back online by Monday morning.
Write to Nick Kostov at nick.kostov@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 14, 2017 10:28 ET (14:28 GMT)
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