We have a breaking cybersecurity story to share with you!
Last night, reports came in that Boing was hit by the WannaCry computer virus. We’ve written about the WannaCry and other similar attacks before on the Executech blog. The ransomware virus, which is suspected to have originated in North Korea, will completely lock down a computer until a ransom in bitcoin is paid.
When news broke about the attack on a Boing facility in North Charleston, things were pretty chaotic. The chief engineer at Boing sent out an alert about the virus calling for “All hands on deck.” He also said that “It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,” He was also concerned that the virus could hit equipment used in functional tests of airplanes ready to roll out and potentially “spread to airplane software.”
Fortunately, they were able to contain the outbreak and no critical systems were affected. The virus uses a weakness found in Windows systems that Microsoft has created a patch for. It’s unclear whether the patch was ineffective or simply not applied at this site.
The story serves as another reminder that businesses of all sizes need to make cybersecurity a priority. Making sure you have proper software protection and up-to-date systems is crucial in preventing threats like this one.
