Suzuki Motorcycle India, one of the largest bike manufacturers in the country, was forced to halt production of tens of thousands of vehicles over a data breach.
A cyberattack hit the manufacturer earlier this May, forcing the company to stop production lines. According to Autocar India, the country’s car & bike news outlet, the breach delayed the production of over 20,000 vehicles.
Cybernews has reached out to the company about the alleged data breach, with Suzuki Motorcycle India’s spokesperson confirming that the enterprise is “aware of the incident.”
“We are aware of the incident and have promptly reported 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,” the spokesperson told Cybernews.
The cyberattack reportedly forced the company to postpone its annual supplier conference that was supposed to take place sometime this week, suggesting that Suzuki Motorcycle India was still working to resolve the problem.
The company is India’s fifth-largest bike and scooter maker, employing over 3,000 staff and boasting an annual production capacity of one million units.
While the company could not provide further details concerning the attack, the nature of the incident strongly suggests that a ransomware gang was responsible.
Prominent cybergangs employ double-extortion tactics to muscle victims into paying a ransom. Cybercriminals that use this model often publish stolen data bit by bit, expecting victims to succumb to internal and external pressure.
When the victims operate in manufacturing, crooks try to impact the production of goods, causing damages over downtime. They anticipate that potential losses will outweigh the cost of the ransom and force the management to pay up.
However, law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity professionals advise against meeting crooks’ demands since there’s no guarantee that they’ll delete stolen data or refrain from future attacks.
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