Japanese automaker Kawasaki says ransomware attack impacted European operations

Japanese motor vehicles manufacturer Kawasaki said it experienced a major data security incident that affected daily operations at its European offices.

In a data security incident notice published this week, Kawasaki Motors Europe said that it was a subject of a data security incident. While the company said that the cyber attack was “not successful”, the company’s servers were temporarily isolated till a “strategic recovery plan was initiated later on the same day.”

“KME and its country Branches operate a large number of servers and, as a precaution, it was decided to isolate each one and put a cleansing process in place whereby all data was checked and any suspicious material identified and dealt with,” Kawasaki Europe said.

“The KME IT department, IT staff at its Branches plus external cyber security advisors spent the following week isolating and health-checking all servers and restoring their interconnectivity.

“By the start of the following week, over 90% of server functionality was restored and, despite the need to ensure that each and every server was free of non-authorised information, normal business had been resumed in respect of dealers, business administration and third-party suppliers such as logistics companies,” the company added.

On September 5, the infamous RansomHub ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on KME and listed it as a victim on its data leak site. The group claimed to be in possession of 487 GB of confidential data stolen from the company’s network and has threatened to leak the same if its ransom demands aren’t met.

At the time of publication, Kawasaki Motors Europe did not respond to the hacker group’s claims of data theft and ransom demands.