While the authorities fear an increase in the number of cyberattacks from Russia, the Bridgestone tire plant in Joliette has been forced to completely halt its activities for two days.
On Sunday, the company’s management informed its 1,300 employees in Quebec that a “widespread computer disruption (sic)” had forced it to cease production. “As this is a force majeure event, plant operations are suspended,” read the memo, obtained by The newspaper.
Despite its efforts, the plant failed to resume operations yesterday, as did many of the company’s other facilities in the United States and Latin America.
From Nashville, Tennessee, where Bridgestone’s North American headquarters are located, communications director Emily Weaver tried to be reassuring at the end of the day yesterday, but might not specify a date for the resumption of production.
Also at Alouette
“We continue to progress the investigation to determine the extent and nature of the incident, and we will continue to work diligently to resolve any issues that may affect our business, data, teammates and customers,” she replied.
This attack comes as the company Alouette of Sept-Îles, the largest aluminum smelter on the continent, confirmed last Friday that a breakdown affected all of its computer systems.
“This outage appears to be caused by a security incident related to the intrusion of an unauthorized third party,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
Concerted attacks?
Are these attacks, as some believe, necessarily the result of pirates with Russian allegiances targeting organizations in allied countries of Ukraine, invaded by Russia?
“Is it possible to imagine that these attacks are linked to the current conflict? Yes, answers Patrick R. Mathieu, cybersecurity expert and co-founder of HackFest. But to say that we can be certain? No, it’s much more difficult. »
He recalls that hackers settle in the systems of targeted organizations often three to six months before striking. Thus, linking these cases to the position adopted by NATO last week seems risky to him.
Alexis Dorais-Joncas, director of the Montreal R&D office of ESET, a Slovak company specializing in cybersecurity, agrees.
“We can’t rule it out,” he said. But nothing allows us to claim that this is the case either.
“Before attributing these past and future attacks to one or more organizations of the same allegiance, he adds, you have to take the time to analyze each case, which may take longer than you think. ‘conceived. »
