Volkswagen is resuming production after suffering a major IT outage

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said on Thursday that a major IT outage, which caused most of its German plants to halt production, had been resolved overnight and that its global production network was back online.

The incident, which VW said began at 1030 GMT on Wednesday and was revealed late that evening, affected the entire Volkswagen Group, which includes the Porsche AG (P911_p.DE) and Audi brands, highlighting On the weakness of the network infrastructure in Europe’s largest automaker.

“The IT infrastructure issues in the Volkswagen network were resolved overnight and the network is stable again,” Volkswagen said, without providing 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, its impact on production, or potential financial implications.

Shares of the automaker fell 1.2%.

“The affected applications are currently being rebooted. The global production network is operational, and production is expected to continue as planned,” she said, adding that individual systems may still be affected during the transition.

The accident comes a month after a malfunction in the production system led to the cessation of local production at the Japanese company Toyota, the largest-selling car manufacturer in the world.

The outage affected Volkswagen’s German sites in Wolfsburg, Emden, Osnabrück, Hannover, Dresden and Zwickau, as well as component plants in Braunschweig, Kassel, Chemnitz and Salzgitter.

“There are so far no indications that the disruption is caused by external influences,” Volkswagen said.

The event highlights the safety of infrastructure at major companies in Germany, and sparked comments from Transport Minister Volker Vissing, who called for better protection.

“We need effective security systems here,” Wessing told RTL/n-tv. “It should be clear to everyone that digital infrastructure is critical infrastructure.”

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