Toyota said it will suspend Japan factory operations on Tuesday, losing around 13,000 cars of output, after a supplier of plastic parts and electronic components was hit by a suspected cyberattack. No information was immediately available about who was behind the possible attack or the motive. The attack comes just after Japan joined Western allies in clamping down on Russia after it invaded Ukraine, although it was not clear if the attack was at all related.
There has been a significant increase in Cyber attacks since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this day and age, IT warfare can be more damaging and covert than traditional methods used in the past. In this instance, Toyota was not directly hit but a key supplier was compromised. Any business or service you use is part of your supply chain – which can be targeted and cause just as much disruption to your organization as a direct attack.
What can you do to help protect your business? If you work with critical third party services, demand that they conduct regular security audits including penetration testing, review their patch management policies and procedures, network segmentation and access control. These steps are critical for any successful defense against these attacks as they will only increase during this conflict.
