Bridgestone: Key systems restored after cyber breach

NASHVILLE — Bridgestone Americas Inc. said it is getting its systems back online "in a safe and secure manner" as it continues to investigate a security breach in its network during the early morning of Feb. 27.

In a statement issued mid-day on March 3, Bridgestone said that in the previous 24 hours, key internal systems had been restored at all manufacturing sites so that production may resume, "but it will take some additional partial production days to securely ramp up to full production."

The Nashville-based subsidiary of Japan's Bridgestone Corp. said it is "prioritizing getting our ordering, shipping and invoicing systems safely back online. We're also resuming direct shipments to customers from our distribution centers and warehouses."

Bridgestone said it is "continuing to execute our robust business continuity plans and established governance process to do everything we can to minimize impact to our customers and teammates.

"We will continue to work diligently to restart all operations efficiently and safely and to address any issues that may affect our operations, our data, our teammates and our customers."

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The purported cyberattack shut down computers at certain certain manufacturing and retreading facilities in North America and Latin America. Workers were sent home early from several manufacturing shifts spanning Feb. 27-28, including those in Des Moines, Iowa; and in La Vergne, Tenn.

According to media reports, Bridgestone workers have been affected at a truck and bus radial factory in Warren County, Tenn.; a passenger and light truck radial tire plant in Aiken County, S.C.; and Canadian media reported Feb. 27 that there was disruption to the night shift at a Bridgestone plant in Joliette, Quebec.

A notice posted on the Facebook page of United Steelworkers Local 1155L, which represents workers at the Warren County plant, dayshift workers in maintenance, warehouse, Banbury/receiving, MRC lab, extrusion, stock cutting and four roll were instructed to report to work.

Workers in other departments, the notice said, will not be required to report to work.

In its previous statement, issued on the morning of the shutdown, Bridgestone stopped short of calling the incident a cyberattack.

"Until we learn more from this investigation, we cannot determine with certainty the scope or nature of any potential incident, but we will continue to work diligently to address any potential issues that may affect our operations, our data, our teammates and our customers," the company said in a Feb. 28 statement.

Reuters news service reported March 1 that Toyota Motor Corp. had suspended production at all 14 Japanese plants on that day in response to a breach that affected its supplier of plastic parts and electronic components. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Reuters it was investigating whether Russia was involved, in response to Japan's backing of Ukraine in the war against Russia.