Boeing hit by WannaCry virus, fears it could cripple some jet production | The Seattle Times

Boeing has been hit by the WannaCry computer virus. Some airplane production may be affected

By

Seattle Times aerospace reporter

Boeing was hit Wednesday by the WannaCry computer virus, raising fears within the company that it could cripple some vital airplane production equipment.

Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, sent out an alarming memo calling for “All hands on deck.”

“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,” VanderWel wrote, adding that he’s concerned the virus will hit equipment used in functional tests of airplanes ready to roll out and potentially “spread to airplane software.”

Indicating widespread alarm within the company at the potential impact, VanderWel said the attack required “a battery-like response,” a reference to the 787 in-flight battery fires in 2013 that grounded the world’s fleet of Dreamliners and led to an extraordinary three-month-long engineering effort to find a fix.

“We are on a call with just about every VP in Boeing,” VanderWel’s memo said.

The WannaCry virus, which exploits a flaw in Windows to gain access to a network, attacks computer’s software using “ransomware.”

It locks users out of their computers until they pay a fee, sometimes in cryptocurrency, or other type of ransom.

The virus first surfaced in a May 2017 worldwide cyberattack. At the time, the Trump Administration blamed North Korea for the attacks.

Afterwards, Microsoft issued patches to plug the vulnerability. However, older computers may not receive patches and many businesses don’t automatically update their systems but wait to do updates in batches to make sure the upgrade doesn’t affect other software.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for information.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-hit-by-wannacry-virus-fears-it-could-cripple-some-jet-production/