The sports car manufacturer Porsche had to temporarily stop production at the main plant in Zuffenhausen and in Leipzig. A massive server failure was the reason.
Early on Tuesday evening, the Porsche management informed all employees worldwide via e-mail about the IT disruption. Accordingly, all processes based on SAP software were affected. At noon the first problems were reported, in the following hours the whole extent of the disturbance was revealed, it is said.
In Zuffenhausen, where more than 7,000 employees leave around 200 cars a day, the production stalled completely due to the IT outage. Also in Leipzig, where among other things the Cayenne and the Macan are manufactured, the production came to a standstill.
Not only the production, but also the spare parts warehouse and customer processes were completely eliminated. 211 servers were affected by the problems, it says in the Rundmail. One way to bring about replacement servers or other detours to get the production back to work, there was therefore initially not.
A Porsche spokesman told the Spiegel on Wednesday that it was not an external attack. An internal problem was the reason for the failure. On Tuesday evening, the production was gradually restarted. The spokesman was initially unable to disclose any damage, nor did he comment on the technical details of the disruption.
Pilz Group: "All computer systems off the grid"
Already on Sunday, the automation specialist Pilz from Ostfildern "all computer systems have been taken off the grid." The company sees itself differently than Porsche but as "victim of a targeted cyber attack". Affected are "all server and PC workplaces worldwide including the communication network", the Pilz Group informs. The disturbances would "continue for a few more days".
In recent years, malicious software has had similar effects in various German companies. In December, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) spoke of several cases in which there were "major production losses" because "entire corporate networks had to be rebuilt".
For example, the ransomware WannaCry attacked around 200,000 computers worldwide within a few days and caused losses of at least several hundred million euros, other estimates reaching billions. Even then, an automaker was affected: Renault in France.
In 2017, the malware NotPetya even caused an estimated $ 10 billion in damages by spreading rapidly and irreversibly encrypting data on infected computers.
