Bridgestone cyberattack disrupts manufacturing, raises supply chain concerns - Industrial Cyber

Attacks and Vulnerabilities Critical infrastructure Cyber-Physical Industrial Cyber Attacks Manufacturing News Supply Chain Security Threat Landscape Bridgestone cyberattack disrupts manufacturing, raises supply chain concerns September 05, 2025 Tire manufacturer Bridgestone confirmed it is investigating a cyberattack that disrupted operations at some of its North American manufacturing facilities. The company said its rapid response contained the intrusion in its early stages, preventing theft of customer data or deeper network compromise. Bridgestone added that the incident has been contained and business operations have returned to normal, though a full investigation remains underway. However, Bridgestone has not disclosed details about the cyberattack or the precise target of the adversaries. The company stated that its staff is working around the clock to mitigate the impact and minimize the fallout in the supply chain, which could lead to product shortages in the market. “Bridgestone Americas continues to investigate a limited cyber incident impacting some of our manufacturing facilities,” according to a Bleeping Computer news report. “Our team responded quickly to contain the issue in keeping with our established protocols.” The statement added that “While our forensic analysis is ongoing, we remain confident that we were able to contain this limited cyber incident early. We do not believe any customer data or interfaces were compromised.” “Maintaining business continuity and protecting data and interfaces has been, and continues to be, our top priority,” according to a company spokesperson. “We continue to work diligently to meet our customer obligations and to address any potential further impacts associated with this cyber incident.” On Tuesday, reports surfaced about a cybersecurity incident impacting two of BSA’s production facilities in Aiken County, South Carolina. By Wednesday, Canadian media outlets reported similar disruptions at BSA’s manufacturing facility in Joliette, Quebec. While Bridgestone was asked whether ransomware was involved, the company has not responded. So far, no ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Bridgestone Americas. In March 2022, the LockBit ransomware gang claimed responsibility for targeting Bridgestone Americas, saying it had accessed data from a limited number of systems and threatened to leak the stolen information unless a ransom was paid. Highlighting an August ransomware roundup report, Rebecca Moody, head of data research at Comparitech, wrote in an emailed statement that manufacturers are facing an increasing number of ransomware attacks (figures rose by 57 percent from July to August). “Manufacturers are a prime target for hackers due to the amount of disruption they can cause by encrypting systems–something we’re also seeing with Jaguar Land Rover in the UK. If this is a ransomware attack and Bridgestone hasn’t paid a ransom, it’s likely we’ll see a group claiming the attack in the coming weeks. For example, in the last 24 hours, Scattered Spider has come forward to claim the JLR attack.” On Tuesday, JLR confirmed it had been hit by a cyber incident. “We took immediate action to mitigate its impact by proactively shutting down our systems. We are now working at pace to restart our global applications in a controlled manner.  At this stage, there is no evidence any customer data has been stolen, but our retail and production activities have been severely disrupted.” “Even if the attack doesn’t get very far, it is generally wise to shut down or isolate networks or systems before malicious things can spread,” Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, wrote in an emailed statement. “This means that even if the actual production systems are not impacted, the manufacturing lines can stop while things are being checked, then must be restarted again, which is not a trivial matter. Even with those challenges, it is much better to be safe than to risk an actual cyberattack, such as ransomware, getting loose within the organization.” Kron added that since a majority of malware, including ransomware, is spread through modern social engineering attacks such as email phishing, it has never been more critical to have a good human risk management program in place that helps reduce the chances of a human error causing significant problems. Paul Bischoff, consumer privacy advocate at Comparitech, recognizes that this attack has many of the hallmarks of a ransomware attack, although ransomware hasn’t been confirmed as the culprit yet. “Bridgestone suffered a previous ransomware attack in 2022 by LockBit, which would make this the second time that the company fell victim to ransomware. This attack actually disrupted the company’s manufacturing facilities, not just non-essential stuff like communications, sales, and payroll, like we see with most attacks. Although Bridgestone says it stopped the attack early, it’s best to assume the worst until the investigation is complete.” Chris Hauk, a consumer privacy champion at Pixel Privacy, said that “We can expect to continue to see cyber-attacks on companies like this, attacks that aren’t aimed at stealing data but that target their manufacturing facilities. While Bridgestone believes no customer or company data was compromised, Bridgestone customers and employees will still want to stay alert for phishing attempts, as well as possible new accounts opened in their name. Firestone customers should also be on alert, as Firestone is a subsidiary of Bridgestone.” Anna Ribeiro Industrial Cyber News Editor. Anna Ribeiro is a freelance journalist with over 14 years of experience in the areas of security, data storage, virtualization and IoT. Related NIST expands CSF 2.0 toolkit with quick-start guides aligning cyber risk, risk management, workforce strategy PwC Annual Threat Dynamics 2026 discloses that identity attacks surge as AI reshapes cyber threat landscape Forescout achieves FedRAMP high ATO, strengthens security for converged IT, OT and IoT networks Darktrace introduces Adaptive Human Defense to personalize security training and protection across organizations NetRise Provenance launched to expose open source contributor risk, map impact across software supply chains ISA opens call for ISA113 committee to tackle industrial workflow interoperability challenges across industrial systems Forescout 2026 Riskiest Connected Devices report warns of rising OT, ICS risk as network infrastructure becomes prime target Resecurity warns that Iran war enters multi-domain phase as cyber and kinetic operations converge M-Trends 2026 reveals threat landscape shaped by faster, coordinated, and industrialized cyberattacks AppGate launches OT ZTNA solution to secure industrial control systems and critical infrastructure