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WannaCry ransomware causes Honda plant shutdown in Japan

Just when you thought you wouldn't hear about WannaCry again...

Andrew Krok Reviews Editor / Cars
Cars are Andrew's jam, as is strawberry. After spending years as a regular ol' car fanatic, he started working his way through the echelons of the automotive industry, starting out as social-media director of a small European-focused garage outside of Chicago. From there, he moved to the editorial side, penning several written features in Total 911 Magazine before becoming a full-time auto writer, first for a local Chicago outlet and then for CNET Cars.
Andrew Krok
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A month after the ransomware made headlines for locking down computers around the world, including the British healthcare system, WannaCry is back in the news as it forces a car plant to shut down in Japan.

Honda had to stop production at its Sayama plant on Monday after WannaCry made its way onto the automaker's network, Reuters reports. The plant puts out approximately 1,000 vehicles per day, split between the Accord sedan and the Odyssey and Stepwgn minivans.

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Anything that attempts to get in the way of building minivans deserves the harshest punishment.

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The automaker did not immediately return a request for comment, but a spokeswoman told Reuters that WannaCry had made its way into Honda's networks in multiple regions, including Japan, North America, Europe and China. The company strengthened its security after WannaCry first came on the scene in May, apparently to no avail.

The shutdown affected only one plant, and it appears Honda won't need to shut down any others. At the time of writing, the Sayama plant is back up and running.

Honda wasn't the only automaker to fall prey to the ransomware. The Renault-Nissan Alliance suffered as well, briefly shutting down plants in both Europe and Asia in May.

WannaCry exploited a vulnerability found by the National Security Agency (NSA) and subsequently leaked. It affected hundreds of thousands of computers, encrypting the contents of hard drives and demanding Bitcoin payments to unlock them. Microsoft has taken the offensive, ramping up its security updates for legacy versions of Windows in order to stem the bleeding.

Watch this: Why the WannaCry cyberattack is so bad, and so avoidable