Boeing Hit by WannaCry Ransomware Attack

Speculation of Production Facility Infection Dismissed

Aerospace giant Boeing found itself dealing with the infamous WannaCry ransomware this week, but initial concerns of it spreading to a production facility have been debunked as mere speculation.

All Hands on Deck

Chief engineer, Mike VanderWel, raised the alarm by sending out an urgent email internally on Wednesday, as reported by the Seattle Times.

“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 [automated spar assembly tools] may have gone down,” he stated. “We are on a call with just about every VP in Boeing.”

Assessment and Remediation

Following the initial panic, Boeing released an official statement clarifying that the ransomware incident was limited to “a few machines” which were promptly patched and fixed. However, head of communications, Linda Mills, acknowledged that it took some time to fully assess the extent of the issue at Boeing’s South Carolina facility.

“Our cybersecurity operations center detected a limited intrusion of malware that affected a small number of systems. Remediations were applied and this is not a production and delivery issue,” the statement assured.

Reminder of Cybersecurity Risks

This incident serves as a stark reminder of the persistent threat posed by cyber-attacks, even those for which security updates are available.

The Windows SMB vulnerability exploited by WannaCry had actually been patched by Microsoft a few months before the ransomware outbreak in May 2017, which caused widespread damage worldwide on countless endpoints.

Impact of WannaCry

The NHS was notably affected by WannaCry, with an estimated 19,000 operations and appointments cancelled, impacting a third of the health service.

Since then, sporadic outbreaks have continued to occur, with Honda temporarily closing a plant in June last year, just weeks after the initial attack.

Rise of Crypto-Mining Malware

Despite its past havoc, ransomware seems to be losing favor among cybercriminals in favor of crypto-currency mining malware.

Trend Micro reported a decrease in ransomware-related threats blocked last year, down to 631 million from over one billion in 2016.