Japanese tyre manufacture Bridgestone on Friday said its US subsidiary has suffered a ransomware attack, just weeks after suppliers of automaker Toyota Motor reported similar attacks.

Bridgestone in a statement said third-party unauthorised access was made at Bridgestone Americas on February 27, prompting it to shut down its computer network. It said it later reconnected the network after a comprehensive security check.

An investigation later determined the incident to be a ransomware attack, Bridgestone said.

The announcement comes about two weeks after Toyota’s main supplier, Denso, detected unauthorised access via a ransomware attack at a group company that handles sales and engineering in Germany.

Another Toyota supplier was hit by a cyberattack late last month, prompting Japan’s largest automaker to shut down domestic production for one day on March 1, affecting output of around 13,000 vehicles.

© Thomson Reuters 2022