15 June 2020

Japanese car-maker Honda said it is dealing with a cyber-attack that is impacting its operations around the world.

Honda currently runs a factory in Swindon, where it makes its Civic cars, which is due to close in 2021. The company has confirmed that work at the UK plant has been halted alongside a suspension of other operations in North America, Turkey, Italy and Japan. However, it added that it hoped some of the affected sites would go back online this afternoon or later this week.

Some cyber-security experts have said it looks like a ransomware attack, which means that hackers might have encrypted data or locked Honda out of some of its IT systems.

"Honda can confirm that a cyber-attack has taken place on the Honda network," the company said in a statement.

It added that "the virus had spread" throughout its network, but did not provide further details.