Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Summary

Kawasaki Motors Europe experienced an unsuccessful cyberattack prompting immediate server isolation and a same-day recovery strategy. The company's IT personnel, alongside branch staff and external security advisors, conducted thorough server health checks and data cleansing over the following week, restoring over 90% of functionality and reestablishing normal operations with dealers, administrative functions, and third-party suppliers despite ongoing security verifications.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

In early September 2024, Kawasaki Motors Europe (KME), the European headquarters of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., experienced a cyber attack that triggered an immediate operational response. Although the attack did not achieve its objectives, KME proactively isolated all company servers as a precautionary measure. The isolation occurred on the same day as the attack, initiating a strategic recovery plan to address potential compromises. KME and its country branches maintained a large server infrastructure, necessitating a systematic approach to containment. Each server underwent isolation followed by a cleansing process designed to inspect all data, identify suspicious material, and neutralize threats. This process aimed to ensure no unauthorized or malicious content remained within the network.

The recovery effort involved collaboration between KME’s internal IT department, IT personnel from its branch locations, and external cybersecurity advisors. Over the week following the attack, teams worked to health-check every server, verify data integrity, and methodically restore interconnectivity between systems. By the beginning of the following week, more than 90% of server functionality had been reinstated. Despite the rigorous requirement to confirm each server’s cleanliness and the absence of unauthorized data, KME resumed normal business operations. This included restoring full functionality for dealers, business administration systems, and critical third-party supplier integrations such as logistics partners. The incident caused temporary disruption but concluded without prolonged operational downtime.

Sources

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