The malware entered the North Carolina transmission plant\u2019s computer network via email last August, just as the criminals wanted, spreading like a virus and threatening to lock up the production line until the company paid a ransom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AW North Carolina stood to lose $270,000 in revenue, plus wages for idled employees, for every hour the factory wasn\u2019t shipping its crucial auto parts to nine Toyota car and truck plants across North America, said John Peterson, the plant\u2019s information technology manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company is just one of a growing number being hit by cyber-criminals looking for a payday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While online thieves have long targeted banks for digital holdups, today\u2019s just-in-time manufacturing sector is climbing toward the top of hackers\u2019 hit lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Production lines that integrate computer-imaging, barcode scanners and measuring tolerances to a hair\u2019s width at multiple points are more vulnerable to malevolent outsiders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese people who try to hack into your network know you have a set schedule. And they know hours are meaningful to what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Peterson said in an interview. \u201cThere\u2019s only a day and a half of inventory in the entire supply chain. And so if we don\u2019t make our product in time, that means Toyota doesn\u2019t make their product in time, which means they don\u2019t have a car to sell on the lot that next day. It\u2019s that tight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that creates pressure on manufacturers to make the criminals go away by paying the sums demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey may not know what that number is, but they know it\u2019s not zero. So what is that number? Where do you flinch?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last August at the 2,200-worker Durham transmission factory, the computer virus coursed through the plant\u2019s network, flooding machines with data and stopping production for about four hours, Peterson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data on some laptops was lost, but the malware was blocked by a firewall when it tried to exit the plant\u2019s network and put the hackers\u2019 lock on the plant\u2019s computer network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plant was hit again in April, this time by different crooks using new malware designed to hold data or devices hostage to force a ransom payment, Peterson said. The virus was contained before affecting production, and no ransom was paid to either group, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Manufacturers, government and financial firms are now the top targets globally for illicit intrusions by criminals, foreign espionage agencies and others up to no good, according to a report this spring by NTT Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A survey of nearly 3,000 corporate cybersecurity executives in 13 countries last year by Cisco Systems Inc. found about one out of four manufacturing organizations reported cyberattacks that cost them money in the previous 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2015, U.S. manufacturers considered \u201ccritical\u201d to the economy and to normal modern life, like makers of autos and aviation parts, have been the main targets of cyberattacks \u2014 outstripping energy, communications and other critical infrastructure, according to Department of Homeland Security incident response data. The numbers may be imprecise because companies in key industries often don\u2019t report attacks for fear of diminished public perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But attacks demanding ransom against all U.S. institutions are spiraling higher. The FBI\u2019s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 2,673 ransomware reports in the year ending last September \u2014 nearly double from 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While manufacturers are increasingly prey to these cyber-stickups, it may just be because criminals are playing the odds and striking as many enterprises of all types as they can across a targeted region, said John Miller, who heads a team at cybersecurity firm FireEye that tracks money-driven online threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attackers \u201caren\u2019t necessarily going after manufacturing to the exclusion of other sectors or with a preference above other sectors. It\u2019s more that, \u2018OK, we\u2019re going to try to infect everybody in this country that we can,\u2019\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One high-profile example came in May and June, when auto manufacturers including Renault shut down production after they were swept up in the worldwide onslaught of the WannaCry ransomware virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But attackers also are increasingly injecting ways to remotely control the robots and other automated systems that control production inside targeted factories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The threat of computer code tailored to hit specific targets has been around since researchers in 2010 discovered Stuxnet, malware apparently designed to sabotage Iran\u2019s nuclear program by causing centrifuge machines to spin out of control. Stuxnet is widely believed to be a covert American and Israeli creation, but neither country has officially acknowledged a role in the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malicious software that attacked Ukraine\u2019s electricity grid last December was built to remotely sabotage circuit breakers, switches and protection relays, researchers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cyberattacks that reach into industrial control systems have doubled in the past two years in the U.S. to nearly four dozen so far in the federal fiscal year that ends in September, outstripping last year\u2019s total, according to DHS data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the emerging threat you\u2019re going to see in the future now is really custom ransomware that\u2019s going to be targeted more toward individual companies,\u201d said Neil Hershfield, the acting director of the DHS team that handles emergency response to cyberattacks on industrial control systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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