Renault/Nissan hit by ransomware attack

14 May, 2017

 


 

“The ransomware was said to have exploited a Windows security weakness, encrypting data on computers and holding it at ransom”

For those of you that haven’t read the news, Friday’s ransomware attack affected tens-of-thousands of computers in almost 100 countries across the world, and reports state that French auto giant Renault became the first major French company to be hit —  an English plant of Renault’s alliance partner Nissan was also hit by the attack. 

Production was stopped of Renault’s European plants as a result of the attack, affecting operation as data on computers was encrypted and held at ransom, according to a Renault spokesman.

A Nissan spokesman has confirmed that their Sunderland, England, plant was affected by the ransomware but wouldn’t confirm whether production was halted as a result. The plant manufactures the Nissan Leaf, Qashqai, Note and Juke as well as the Infiniti Q30 and QX30. 

The ransomware was said to have exploited a Windows security weakness that Microsoft had already released a patch for, however was still able to wreak considerable amounts of havoc on devices which had yet to be updated — a poignant reminder to update your computer, especially if they control production at your vehicle manufacturing plant …Renault has said that proactive measures have now been put in place.

Following this, a Paris prosecutor has opened an investigation into the attack, which covers “Renault and other possible victims,” according to reports.

Design accord

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.