Boeing might have been attacked with virus similar to WannaCry
Boeing, a company the airplanes of which are used in airlines throughout the whole world, might have experienced a serious catastrophe because of a virus resembling WannaCry. If this fact cited by the media is correct, this means that some hackers have blocked computers of a major company demanding cryptocurrency in return. Such viruses are usually called ransomware or Bitcoin ransom viruses, although in this case, it’s unknown which cryptocurrency units the criminals want.
Most pessimistic messages indicate that even some assembly lines of the company stopped working. The corporate social media management has reacted to the rumors by claiming that the press exaggerates them greatly:
Statement: A number of articles on a malware disruption are overstated and inaccurate. 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 or delivery issue.
— Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) March 28, 2018
The experience gained by the law enforcement during the WannaCry attack might help Boeing this time - unless we are currently seeing another example of fake news. One of the original sources of the news is Seattle Times, which attributes the mentioning of assembly lines to Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane.
Note that the ransomware virus might be similar to WannaCry in the regard that it demands ransom, but not in Bitcoin. The involvement of cryptocurrency in this story is still in question.