Suzuki motorcycle plant shut down by cyber attack

The Indian manufacturing plant responsible for manufacturing Suzuki motorcycles has been forced to shut down following a cyber attack.

Since May 10, production of bikes and scooters at Suzuki Motorcycle's Indian plant has reportedly been temporarily suspended with the loss of an estimated 20,000 vehicles.

In addition, Suzuki Motorcycle has postponed its annual supplier conference, which was due to start this week.

Although Suzuki has acknowledged that it is suffering a cybersecurity "incident," it has not shared details of the nature of what has occurred while it continues to investigate:

“We are aware of the incident and have promptly reported the same to the concerned Government department. The matter is currently under investigation, and for security purposes, we are unable to provide further details at this point in time.”

Suzuki may not wish to share any more information while it gathers more information about what has occurred, and determines its next steps, but I don't think it would be a surprise to anyone if it was later revealed that the company had suffered a ransomware attack.

A ransomware attack might have not just caused disruption to the company's network infrastructure and communications through the encryption of data and lockdown of systems, but it could also mean that a hacking group has managed to exfiltrate sensitive information from the compromised company.

In many instances, a company will decline to acknowledge that a cybersecurity attack was ransomware-related until it has determined whether it is prepared to pay a ransom or not to its extortionists.

Of course, the nature of the disruption at Suzuki's motorcycle manufacturing plant in India may not be ransomware-related.  There certainly are other possible explanations - albeit - perhaps - not as likely in the balance of probability.

With a little luck we might find out more in the coming days, and hopefully production will be restored.