Though news of the attack by the WannaCry virus triggered widespread alarm within Boeing and among airline customers during the day Wednesday, by evening the company was calling for calm.

Boeing was hit Wednesday by the WannaCry computer virus, and after an initial scare within the company that vital airplane-production equipment might be brought down, company executives later offered assurances that the attack had been quashed with minimal damage.

Though news of the attack triggered widespread alarm within the company and among airline customers during the day, by evening Boeing was calling for calm.

“We’ve done a final assessment,” said Linda Mills, the head of communications for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “The vulnerability was limited to a few machines. We deployed software patches. There was no interruption to the 777 jet program or any of our programs.”

Earlier in the day, when the cyberattack struck, the reaction was anything but calm.

Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, sent out an alarming alert about the virus calling for “All hands on deck.”

“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,” VanderWel wrote, adding his concern that the virus could hit equipment used in functional tests of airplanes ready to roll out and potentially “spread to airplane software.”

VanderWel’s message said the attack required “a batterylike response,” a reference to the 787 in-flight battery fires in 2013 that grounded the world’s fleet of Dreamliners and led to an extraordinary three-month-long engineering effort to find a fix.

“We are on a call with just about every VP in Boeing,” VanderWel’s memo said.

It took until late Wednesday afternoon before Boeing issued a statement dialing back the fears.

“It took some time for us to go to our South Carolina operations, bring in our entire IT team and make sure we had the facts,” Mills said.

Even then, the afternoon statement was short on detail.

“Our cybersecurity operations center detected a limited intrusion of malware that affected a small number of systems,” it said. “Remediations were applied and this is not a production and delivery issue.”

Speaking Wednesday evening, Mills said the speculation in VanderWel’s message that some 777 production equipment might have gone down turned out not to be true.

She added that the attack was limited to computers in the Commercial Airplanes division and that the military and services units were not affected.

“To the best of our knowledge,” she said, the crisis is over and the attack did no significant damage.

How did it happen?

The WannaCry virus, which exploits a flaw in Windows software to gain access to a network, attacks computers using “ransomware.”

It was designed to lock users out of their data by encrypting files until they pay a fee, sometimes in cryptocurrency, or other type of ransom.

Ransomware attacks have increased in recent years. The city of Atlanta experienced a five-day ransomware attack that was mostly fixed by Tuesday.

However, Jake Williams, founder of cybersecurity consultancy Rendition Info­sec, said the ransomware part of the WannaCry virus is broken and there’s actually no way to pay a ransom that will retrieve files once encrypted.

The sole purpose for a hacker to deploy it is to damage computer systems.

The WannaCry virus first surfaced in a May 2017 worldwide cyberattack. Once a single computer is infected, it can spread to all Windows computers on a network.

At the time, the Trump administration blamed North Korea for the attacks.

Microsoft issued patches to plug the vulnerability. However, Corey Nachreiner, chief technology officer of Seattle security technology firm WatchGuard Technologies, said some companies with specialized equipment don’t update very often for fear their custom-built systems will be in danger.

Microsoft declined to comment on the Boeing cyber­attack.

Mitchell Edwards, a Dallas, Texas-based cyberthreat intelligence analyst, said that although a so-called “kill switch” fix for the WannaCry virus was quickly developed, other hackers were also quick to produce WannaCry variants that could defeat the fix.

He said the virus used to attack Boeing could have been one of these updated WannaCry versions.

Mounir Hahad, head of Juniper Threat Labs at Juniper Networks, said the infection could potentially have come from a dormant version of the original virus.

He explained that the “kill switch” fix only works when a computer is connected to the internet. If the machine is rebooted when on a local network that’s not connected to the internet, the virus would resume the infection process.

Production systems hit

Whatever happened Wednesday with Boeing, the WannaCry threat to manufacturing businesses is real.

Williams of Rendition Infosec said he knows of three manufacturing companies, two of them now his clients in the United States, that suffered production stoppages because of WannaCry infections in the last six months.

He said one plant was down for 24 hours, another for 96 hours. In both cases, configuration files that controlled machines were lost and systems had to be reinstalled from scratch before production could restart.

He declined to name the companies because of nondisclosure agreements.

“Tons of manufacturing equipment runs on Windows. I was surprised,” Williams said.

In addition, he said, some factory equipment runs on Windows Embedded, which is a variant of the operating system used in computer-controlled machines.

An infection of the Windows Embedded machines “absolutely will bring down a plant,” he said.

However, cyber experts judged one “nightmare scenario” that spread on social media Wednesday to be extremely unlikely.

Once the Boeing cyberattack news broke, some on Twitter suggested the virus could perhaps infect an airplane’s control software and trigger a ransomware demand while in the air.

Edwards dismissed this as “hysteria.” Williams agreed.

“I don’t think that’s realistic,” Williams said. “I don’t think any of Boeing’s planes or any aircraft anywhere run Embedded Windows. It’s not suitable for applications that require consistent, real-time availability without delay because lives depend on it.”

In contrast, Williams said the threat to production systems is real, though solvable.

“I’ve seen three stoppages in the last six months, and I don’t think this will be the last,” he said. “If you are in manufacturing today, you need to do some preparations. It’s easy to shut (WannaCry) down.”

His company has produced a free software fix called Tearstopper that he said prevents WannaCry viruses from encrypting files.</s>Boeing has acknowledged a cybersecurity incident that affected a limited number of its computers after The Seattle Times reported that the airline maker had been hit with ransomware — the same type of malicious software responsible for recently sidelining government systems in cities including Atlanta and Baltimore, among other victims.

“Our cybersecurity operations center detected a limited intrusion of malware that affected a small number of systems,” Boeing said in a statement Wednesday evening.

“Remediations were applied and this is not a production or delivery issue,” the statement said.

The infection was first reported earlier Wednesday by The Seattle Times after Boeing chief engineer Mike VanderWel sent out a memo to colleagues warning that malware was discovered on some of the company’s computers.

“We are on a call with just about every VP in Boeing,” Mr. VanderWel’s memo said, The Times reported. “All hands on deck,” he wrote.

Linda Mills, the head of communications for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, subsequently downplayed the severity of the security incident, The Times reported.

“We’ve done a final assessment,” Ms. Mills said. “The vulnerability was limited to a few machines. We deployed software patches. There was no interruption to the 777 jet program or any of our programs.”

“It took some time for us to go to our South Carolina operations, bring in our entire IT team and make sure we had the facts,” Ms. Mills told The Times.

The infection was limited to Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division and failed to affect the firm’s military and services units, the newspaper reported.

The Seattle Times identified the strain of malware that infected Boeing as “WannaCry,” the same type of ransomware that crippled computer systems last May in over 150 countries, claiming victims ranging from Honda and Hitachi, to the U.K. National Health Service and universities in Canada, China, Colombia and Greece, among others.

Ransomware works by encrypting the contents of infected computers and then holding that data hostage until the the perpetrator receives a ransom payment typically in the form of Bitcoin or other hard-to-trace cryptocurrency.

Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers declined to clarify whether the airline maker had been infected with WannaCry a different strain of ransomware, The New York Times reported.

Nearly a year since the WannaCry outbreak, however, ransomware infections continue to claim high-profile victims across the private and public sectors alike. The city of Atlanta revealed last week that some of its computer had become infected with ransomware, and The Baltimore Sun reported on Wednesday that ransomware was responsible for sidelining the Maryland city’s 911 dispatch system over the weekend.</s>American plane manufacturer Boeing announced that it “detected a limited intrusion of malware” that infiltrated “a small number of systems,” according to a statement released by a company official. The Seattle Times reports that Boeing fell victim to the WannaCry virus, which held computers hostage earlier this year in the largest cyberextortion scheme ever, CNET reports.

Despite an initial report by chief engineer Mike VanderWel at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering that “the virus would affect equipment used in functionality tests of airplanes and potentially ‘spread to airplane software'” and that it was “metastasizing rapidly,” Boeing said that wasn’t the case and disputes that the virus originated from its South Carolina plant.

“A number of reported articles on a malware disruption are overstated and inaccurate,” VP of Boeing commercial airplanes Linda Mills said, adding “remediations were applied” and the intrusion would not impact production or deliveries.

A Boeing official told CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave that a “patch” was applied to fix the company’s computer system and that the virus impacted a limited number of older systems.

VanderWel reportedly sent out an alarming memo earlier in which he called for “All hands on deck.”

CNET explains that ransomware is malicious software that can lock up your files until you send hackers a ransom payment and that it primarily targets Windows computers. In summer 2017, WannaCry swept affected hospitals, banks and governments in several countries. CNET reports that after July, the amount of ransomware infections dropped sharply.

In another recent case of a ransomware attack, officials in Atlanta were still trying to recover this week days after city’s computer network was crippled and access to electronic records was blocked. Investigators including the Federal Bureau of Investigation are working to figure out the identity of the culprits, who demanded the equivalent of about $51,000 in bitcoin to unlock the shuttered systems.</s>This afternoon a report by the Seattle Times cited internal messages showing that aircraft builder Boeing had been hit by the WannaCry ransomware and there were fears it could affect production. Boeing VP Linda Mills tells Engadget in a statement that its network security "detected a limited intrusion of malware that affected a small number of systems," and it shouldn't affect deliveries.

Issues with ransomware have not tailed off since last year's worldwide outbreak of WannaCry/NotPetya, and the city of Atlanta's government is still recovering after "SamSam" ransomware locked down some systems last week. Even if this occurrence is as controllable as Boeing believes, it's surely not the last time we'll hear about a large organization suddenly locked out of its own computers.</s>After reports emerged on Wednesday afternoon that Boeing had found itself the latest victim of the WannaCry ransomware attack, the company issued a statement to explain that its cybersecurity operations centre had merely detected a "limited intrusion" of malware that had affected a small number of its systems.

Although ZDNet has reached out to Boeing for comment, a statement issued to sister site CNET downplays the concerns over the company's production impact.

"A number of articles on a malware disruption are overstated and inaccurate," Linda Mills, vice president of Boeing commercial airplanes communications, told CNET.

"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."

Claims Boeing had been struck by the virus that caused global panic when it spread last year were made after the company's commercial airplane chief engineer Mike VanderWel distributed a memo to staff that called for "all hands on deck".

"It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down," the Seattle Times reported VanderWel as writing in the memo. He reportedly added that he was concerned the virus would hit equipment used in functional tests of planes ready to roll out and potentially "spread to airplane software".

The WannaCry ransomware, labelled the biggest challenge of 2017, saw ransomware spread with the help of a leaked NSA exploit and infect over 300,000 PCs at major organisations around the globe.

The United Kingdom's National Health Service was one of the highest-profile victims of the attack, with 47 trusts and foundation trusts affected. The ransomware forced a number of hospitals offline and some took weeks to recover.

The United States and its Five Eyes partners blamed the WannaCry ransomware attack on North Korea in December.

A massive cyberattack is hitting organisations around the world

Victims in Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, the UK and the United States have all reported being hit by a cyberattack: authorities are investigating "global ransomware incident".

WannaCry ransomware was the biggest challenge of the year, says cybersecurity centre

Government still learning lessons from ransomware that hit 300,000 PCs worldwide and took down dozens of NHS trusts.

WannaCry ransomware: Now the US says North Korea was to blame

'Cowardly, costly and careless' ransomware attack was the work of North Korean hackers, according to the White House.

Ransomware attacks: Here's what we need to learn from WannaCry and Petya (TechRepublic)

Ransomware is here to stay, which means it's time to make a few changes to how we respond.</s>Boeing fell victim to the WannaCry virus on Wednesday, the Seattle Times reported, raising concerns the ransomware may impact production at the aircraft maker.

The infection was revealed in a memo sent by Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, who called for "all hands on deck," according to the newspaper.

"It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down," VanderWel wrote, adding that he's worried the virus would affect equipment used in functionality tests of airplanes and potentially "spread to airplane software."

A Boeing spokeswoman said some news accounts of the incident were inaccurate and overstated its severity.

"Our cybersecurity operations center detected a limited intrusion of malware that affected a small number of systems," Linda Mills, vice president of Boeing commercial airplanes communications, said in a statement. "Remediations were applied and this is not a production or delivery issue."

Ransomware is malicious software that can lock up your files until you send hackers a ransom payment. It featured in the WannaCry attacks in May and the NotPetya attacks in June, both of which swept through hospitals, banks and governments in several countries. But after July, the rates of ransomware infections dropped sharply, according to a report from Malwarebytes in January.

The attack was made possible by a vulnerability in out-of-date versions of Microsoft Windows first uncovered by the National Security Agency and then released by hackers on the internet in May. Microsoft released a patch for the Windows 7 vulnerability in March, but many people apparently didn't update.

In December, the Trump administration officially accused North Korea of being behind the massive ransomware attack, which held hundreds of thousands of computers hostage earlier this year in the largest cyberextortion scheme ever.

WannaCry was also blamed for a cyberattack that caused outages on several internal Atlanta computer systems, including online bill paying services and some law enforcement data.

CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET's newsstand edition.

Logging Out: Welcome to the crossroads of online life and the afterlife.</s>Earlier today, Boeing was hit by the WannaCry computer ransomware virus, prompting a memo from the company’s chief engineer, Mike VanderWel, calling for "all hands on deck," which sparked widespread concerns:

“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,” VanderWel wrote, ...adding his concern that the virus could hit equipment used in functional tests of airplanes ready to roll out and potentially “spread to airplane software.”

His concerns were likely well intentioned since, as a reminder, in May of last year, in what was described as one of the "worst-ever recorded attacks of its kind," the WannaCry ransomware virus spread across the globe at an alarming rate, seizing control of private networks, locking users out of their computers until they pay a fee, sometimes in cryptocurrency, or other type of ransom.

As a reminder, those pesky "Russian hackers," the same ones that lay relatively dormant for years then suddenly emerged from hibernation in 2016 to hack the DNC, John Podesta and the entire 2016 U.S. presidential election, were initially considered to be the most likely culprits for the WannaCry virus. But after a short time, Russians and North Koreans were dismissed as hackers centered on Chinese-speaking individuals as responsible.

Given VanderWel's initial reaction, the attack triggered widespread alarm within the company.

VanderWel’s message said the attack required “a battery-like response,” a reference to the 787 in-flight battery fires in 2013 that grounded the world’s fleet of Dreamliners and led to an extraordinary three-month-long engineering effort to find a fix. “We are on a call with just about every VP in Boeing,” VanderWel’s memo said.

But, desperate to quell the initial concerns, as The Seattle Times reports, by late Wednesday afternoon however, Boeing issued a statement dialing back those fears.

In other words, 'nothing to see here, move along as Linda Mills, a spokeswoman at Boeing’s commercial airplane division, said some reports on the attack “are overstated and inaccurate."

Finally, The Seattle Times pointed out that Mitchell Edwards, a Dallas, Texas-based cyberthreat intelligence analyst, said that although a so-called “kill switch” fix for the WannaCry virus was quickly developed, other hackers were also quick to produce WannaCry variants that could defeat the fix. He said the virus used to attack Boeing was unlikely to be the original WannaCry virus but an updated version.

Once the news broke, some on social media raised the “nightmare scenario” of the virus infecting an airplane’s control software and possibly triggering a ransomware demand while in the air.

Of course, we will not hold our breath waiting for Rep. Adam Schiff to demand a prob into this 'potentially terrifying' cyberattack, likely suggesting that The Russians did it.

However, given that it was Chinese individuals believed to be responsible last time and Washington is currently at (trade) war with Beijing, the timing of the cyberattack on one of America's biggest exporters is intriguing.</s>This story was originally published on ZDNet.

After reports emerged on Wednesday afternoon that Boeing had found itself the latest victim of the WannaCry ransomware attack, the company issued a statement to explain that its cybersecurity operations centre had merely detected a "limited intrusion" of malware that had affected a small number of its systems.

Although ZDNet has reached out to Boeing for comment, a statement issued to sister site CNET downplays the concerns over the company's production impact.

"A number of articles on a malware disruption are overstated and inaccurate," Linda Mills, vice president of Boeing commercial airplanes communications, told CNET.

"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."

Claims Boeing had been struck by the virus that caused global panic when it spread last year were made after the company's commercial airplane chief engineer Mike VanderWel distributed a memo to staff that called for "all hands on deck".

"It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down," the Seattle Times reported VanderWel as writing in the memo. He reportedly added that he was concerned the virus would hit equipment used in functional tests of planes ready to roll out and potentially "spread to airplane software".

The WannaCry ransomware, labelled the biggest challenge of 2017, saw ransomware spread with the help of a leaked NSA exploit and infect over 300,000 PCs at major organisations around the globe.

The United Kingdom's National Health Service was one of the highest-profile victims of the attack, with 47 trusts and foundation trusts affected. The ransomware forced a number of hospitals offline and some took weeks to recover.

The United States and its Five Eyes partners blamed the WannaCry ransomware attack on North Korea in December.
• A massive cyberattack is hitting organisations around the world (ZDNet)
• WannaCry ransomware was the biggest challenge of the year, says cybersecurity centre (ZDNet)
• WannaCry ransomware: Now the US says North Korea was to blame (ZDNet)
• Ransomware attacks: Here's what we need to learn from WannaCry and Petya (TechRepublic)</s>Boeing Co. has been hit by the WannaCry computer virus, the Seattle Times reported. The ransomware attack is raising fears within the planemaker that some production equipment could be crippled, the newspaper said.

Among the production lines potentially affected are those of the 777 wide-body and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner final assembly in North Charleston, South Carolina.

“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,” Boeing engineer Mike VanderWel wrote in a memo cited by the Seattle Times. VanderWel said he was concerned that the virus would hit equipment used to test jetliners in the factory and potentially “spread to airplane software.”

A similar cyberattack compromised companies such as FedEx Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. last year and crippled parts of the U.K.’s state-run National Health Service.</s>The ransomware that brought computer systems to a standstill around the world last summer roared back to life last night after it infected computers in a Boeing plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, reports the Seattle Times. Within minutes of the virus being detected, fear spread through executives at the company, and Boeing’s chief engineer said the company was “on a call with just about every VP in Boeing.” But by late Wednesday afternoon, Boeing called for calm after the company was able to curtail the attack.
Computers at Boeing are infected with the WannaCry ransomware.