The Asahi Shimbun reported on the 14th that Denso, the world’s second-largest auto parts maker as a subsidiary of Toyota, was attacked by cyberattacks. It has been only two weeks since Toyota’s parts supplier, Kojima Press Industrial, was cyberattacked at the end of February. Denso’s German subsidiary is in charge of designing, developing and selling parts for Toyota locally.

The logo of the Denso headquarters building in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
The logo of the Denso headquarters building in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
According to Asahi, Denso Automotive Deutsch, a German subsidiary of Denso, a Toyota parts manufacturer, was attacked by ransomware and reported the damage to local police. The attackers are believed to be emerging cybercrime groups using the name Pandora.

Ransomware is a compound word of software and Ransom, an English word meaning “body value.” It refers to a method that requires money after locking the system through malicious programs or encrypting data to make the device unusable.

Ransomware began to be known in earnest in 2005 and has been increasing rapidly worldwide since 2013. At least 146 ransomware damages have been reported in Japan over the past year.

In May last year, colonial pipeline, the largest oil pipeline company in the United States, was attacked by a group of hackers called “DarkSide.” The daily oil carried by the colonial pipeline accounts for 45% of the supply in the eastern United States. When the company suspended operations for six days to gauge damage, gasoline hoarding continued due to concerns over a supply shortage.

In the same month, the U.S. branch of Brazil’s JBS, the world’s largest meat processing company, was also attacked by ransomware by the hacker group Revil. JBS, which is responsible for 20 percent of the U.S. meat supply, was forced to suspend its North American and Australian plants for three days and pay a ransom of 11 million dollars (about 13.63 billion won.

Pandora already posted a threat statement online the previous day to the effect that it would “steal and disclose Denso’s confidential data” and claimed that it has more than 157,000 terabytes of data, including order documents and drawings. Denso said he was confirming the damage.

Earlier in December last year, Denso’s Mexican plant was attacked by ransomware, leaking employees’ personal information. At the end of February, Toyota’s main supplier of parts, Kojima Press Industries, was then subjected to cyberattacks. As a result, the parts supply data system was paralyzed, and all Toyota plants in Japan were shut down for a day on March 1.

Denso was established in 1949 when Toyota’s electricity division, which suffered a chronic deficit, fell. At the time of its launch, Denso’s cumulative deficit reached 140 million yen. The company reduced its size through drastic restructuring, including organizing 30 percent of its employees.

In 1953, it formed a technical partnership with Bosch, Germany, and the following year, it established a technician training center and was evaluated as the “strongest artisan group.” Since its foundation, Denso has focused on diversifying its sales channels and has grown into the world’s second-largest auto parts company, keeping Toyota’s delivery ratio below 50% of its total sales.

Denso announced last month that it would invest about 40 billion yen in a joint venture between Taiwan’s TSMC and Sony to acquire 10 percent of the shares. Its plan is to secure stable semiconductor supplies for automobiles.