Toyota will shut down its factories on Tuesday due to an alleged cyberattack.
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Toyota is suspending operations at its national plant due to the threat of a suspected cyber attack. The Japanese car brand will cease production of about 13,000 units, and it is still unknown who is behind the alleged attack.
Toyota Motor Corp said it would shut down domestic factories on Tuesday, cutting production of about 13,000 vehicles, after a supplier of plastic parts and electronic components fell victim to a suspected cyberattack.
No trace of the perpetrator
There was no information about who was behind the possible attack or motive. The attack came just after Japan joined Western allies in cracking down on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, although it was unclear if the attack was related. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his government is investigating the incident and the question of Russia's involvement in it.
"It's hard to say if this has anything to do with Russia until there are comprehensive checks," he told reporters.
Kishida announced Sunday that Japan would join the US and other countries in blocking some Russian banks from accessing the SWIFT international payment system. He also said that Japan would provide emergency assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $100 million.
A spokesman for the supplier, Kojima Industries Corp, said it appeared to be the victim of some kind of cyberattack.
The length of the Toyota production shutdown is unknown.
A Toyota spokesman called it a "failure in the supplier system." The company does not yet know if the shutdown of its 14 plants in Japan, which account for about a third of its global production, will last more than a day, the spokesman added. Some factories owned by Toyota subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu are closing.
Toyota has been cyber-attacked in the past
Toyota, which has suffered from cyberattacks in the past, is a pioneer in just-in-time manufacturing, where parts come from suppliers and go directly to the production line rather than being stored in a warehouse.
State actors have carried out cyberattacks against Japanese corporations in the past, including the attack on Sony Corp in 2014, which exposed internal data and disabled computer systems. The United States blamed North Korea for the attack, which came after Sony released the comedy The Interview about a plot to assassinate regime leader Kim Jong-un.
First a shortage of chips, now a cyberattack
The shutdown of Toyota's production comes as the world's largest automaker is already addressing supply chain disruptions around the world caused by the COVID pandemic, which forced it and other automakers to cut production.
This month, Toyota also faced a production shutdown in North America due to .
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