WannaCry Ransomware Hits Honda Plant, Traffic Cams

WannaCry ransomware, which hit systems across Asia and Europe last month, resurfaced this week to infect more devices, including the network at a Honda factory in Japan and traffic cameras in Australia.

SecurityWatch The ransomware forced Honda on Monday to shut downwards its plant in Sayama, northwest of Tokyo, Reuters reports. A Honda spokesperson tells Reuters that the company'southward computer systems were affected worldwide, fifty-fifty afterward it undertook efforts to protect them following WannaCry's initial spate of attacks in May.

The Sayama plant resumed operations on Tuesday, and production at other Honda factories was unaffected, the spokesperson said.

But WannaCry also compromised the computers that command traffic cameras used to fine motorists across the Australian land of Victoria, according to The Guardian. Local news reports indicated that the infection may take occurred earlier this month just was not discovered until this week. Victoria's department of justice told the Guardian that contractors mistakenly continued hardware infected with WannaCry to the traffic camera system, but that software patches would bring the network dorsum to normal "in a few days."

The ransomware often relies on such man errors to spread. During the initial infection last month, people in Europe downloaded compressed cipher files attached to an email, resulting in at least to the lowest degree 300,000 devices afflicted globally, the Fiscal Times reports. The software typically demands a $300 ransom to unlock infected files.

Among the computers affected last month were those those used by the UK's National Health Organization, Germany's rail system, Renault and Nissan factories, FedEx, Castilian telecom Telefonica, and fifty-fifty Russia's cardinal banking concern.