Honda Motor Co plants in Brazil and India have halted operations as the Japanese automaker battles to recover from a cyberattack that affected several factories worldwide.
The cyberattack at the beginning of this week targeted Honda’s internal servers and spread a virus through the company’s systems, a spokeswoman told reporters yesterday.
Motorcycle plants in India and Brazil were still out of action following the attack, while a four-wheel vehicle plant in Turkey resumed operations yesterday, the spokeswoman said.
The firm was “still investigating details,” she said.
In total, the cyberattack affected 11 Honda plants — including five in the US, local media have reported.
All US plants have resumed operations, the spokeswoman said, declining to elaborate further.
She said the suspension would have only a limited effect on Honda’s business globally.
Global automakers, including Honda, have already been hit hard by a slump in sales because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, Honda reported a 25.3 percent fall in net profit from the previous year as sales fell 6 percent to ￥14.9 trillion (US$138 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March.
Gaming giant Nintendo Co has also admitted that hackers have breached 300,000 accounts since early April, gaining access to personal information, such as birthdays and e-mail addresses, but not credit card details.
An initial hack in April compromised 160,000 accounts and a further 140,000 breaches have been discovered since then, the Kyoto-based firm said in a statement released late on Tuesday.
“We deeply apologize for causing trouble and worries to customers,” Nintendo said in its statement, pledging to “enhance security ... to prevent this happening again.”
Hackers broke into Nintendo Network IDs, intended for services on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and then migrated to Nintendo Accounts, which can be used for purchases at the company’s official online store.
Fraudulent purchases from hacked Nintendo Accounts represented only a fraction of total sales, the company said, and it vowed to reimburse victims if it had not already done so.
Nintendo has been enjoying a strong showing from its popular Switch console and blockbuster games, including Animal Crossing, with demand fueled by players stuck at home because of the pandemic.
Other industries have seen rising cyberattacks during the outbreak as well.
On Sunday, Singapore Technologies Engineering said that its unit, VT San Antonio Aerospace, has discovered a cybersecurity incident where a group “gained unauthorized access to its IT network and deployed a ransomware attack.”
Last week, ship builder Fincantieri SpA confirmed that servers at its Norwegian unit were infected.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS