{"id":354339,"date":"2018-03-29T06:03:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T05:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/boeing-hit-by-malware-attack-rt-us-news\/"},"modified":"2018-03-29T06:03:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T05:03:53","slug":"boeing-hit-by-malware-attack-rt-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/boeing-hit-by-malware-attack-rt-us-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing hit by malware attack \u2014 RT US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aircraft maker Boeing has suffered a malware attack, which early reports said could have impacted production or aircraft software. The company’s official statement later said only a “limited intrusion” had occurred.<\/p>\n

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It all started with a daunting internal memo, reportedly sent by the chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, Mike VanderWel. The document, first reported on by the Seattle Times, warned employees of a possible shutdown of Boeing facilities due to a rapidly advancing computer virus. The memo reportedly blamed the notorious WannaCry ransomware for the imminent disruption of Boeing production sites and, potentially, its flying software.<\/p>\n

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“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,”<\/em> VanderWel reportedly wrote<\/a>. Fueling the fears further, he predicted the malware could affect equipment needed to tune aircraft, and that it might “spread to airplane software.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Referring to the attack as a major one with potentially far-reaching consequences, the engineer called for “all hands on deck,”<\/em> noting that the facility that came under the malware attack was “on a call with just about every VP in Boeing.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Soon after the story gained traction in the media, Boeing refuted the rumors, arguing that while it was in fact subjected to a malware attack, its scale was blown up by the media and the reports were “overstated and inaccurate.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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Finally Boeing responds:
Our cybersecurity operations center detected a limited intrusion of malware that affected a small number of systems. Remediations were applied and this is not a production and delivery issue.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dominic Gates (@dominicgates) March 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

A “limited intrusion of malware”<\/em> took place “that affected a small number of systems,”<\/em> the statement from the company’s spokesperson reads, noting that the issue is being solved and it has been never “a production or delivery issue.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The malware reportedly infected a number of older systems, which have since been fixed, a Boeing official told<\/a> CBS.<\/p>\n

The worldwide outbreak of the WannaCry cyber-attacks in May 2017 crippled some 200,000 computers. In the attack, personal data was stolen by hackers who demanded a ransom in bitcoin. Following months of speculations that Pyongyang could have played a role in the hack, officials in December blamed<\/a>\u00a0North Korea for orchestrating the attack, citing the “evidence”<\/em> discovered in the process of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Microsoft chimed in, accusing<\/a> North Korea of perpetrating the attack with “cyber tools or weapons stolen from the NSA.”<\/em><\/p>\n

North Korea slammed <\/a>the allegations as a “baseless provocation,” while accusing Washington of using the attack as a pretext to ramp up tensions, and demanding it to provide the evidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n