A Volkswagen logo is seen during press day at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, USA, November 17, 2022. Portal/Mike Blake/File Photo Acquire License Rights
FRANKFURT, Sept 28 (Portal) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said on Thursday that a major IT outage that had caused most of its German plants to halt production had been resolved overnight and its global Production network is operational again.
The incident, which VW said began at 10:30 a.m. GMT on Wednesday and became known late in the evening, affected the entire Volkswagen Group, which also includes the Porsche AG (P911_p.DE) brand and Audi, and highlighted the vulnerability of the Network infrastructure at Europe’s largest automobile manufacturer.
“The IT infrastructure problems in the Volkswagen network were resolved during the night and the network is stable again,” Volkswagen said, without providing further details about the impact or cause of the incident.
The company said it was unlikely that an external attack was the cause of the incident and declined to comment on the size and scope of the incident, the impact on production or possible financial impact.
Shares of the carmaker fell 1.2%.
“The affected applications are currently being restarted. The global production network is operational and production is expected to continue as planned,” it said. Individual systems could still be affected in a transition phase.
The incident came a month after a production system glitch brought domestic production to a halt at Japan’s Toyota (7203.T), the world’s top-selling automaker.
Volkswagen’s German locations in Wolfsburg, Emden, Osnabrück, Hanover, Dresden and Zwickau as well as component factories in Braunschweig, Kassel, Chemnitz and Salzgitter were affected by the outage.
“There is still no evidence that the disruption was caused by external influences,” Volkswagen said.
The event puts the spotlight on infrastructure security at Germany’s top companies and was commented on by Transport Minister Volker Wissing, who called for better protection.
“We need security systems here that work,” Wissing told broadcaster RTL/n-tv. “It must be clear to everyone that digital infrastructure is critical infrastructure.”
Reporting by Christoph Steitz, text by Miranda Murray; Edited by Kim Coghill, Elaine Hardcastle and Susan Fenton
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