Nissan works on recovery from IT virus
Bosses at Sunderland’s Nissan plant spent the weekend trying to resolve issues caused when it was hit by the cyber attack which also left the NHS struggling.
It is understood the systems the factory uses in its offices and on the factory floor were affected by the issues.
Problems began on Friday, with Europol reporting more than 200,000 victims across 150 countries had been affected by the WannaCry virus, which has taken hold of files, with ransomware in combination with a worm application causing it to spread across networks.
A Nissan spokesman said: “Like many organisations around the world, some Nissan entities were recently targeted by a ransomware attack.
“Our teams are responding accordingly and there has been no major impact on our business. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”
The spokesman added that there was no production scheduled to begin on Saturday, when the issues came to light.
One worker from the city, who did not wish to be named, said that his shift was sent home shortly after 6am, when the first weekend shift was due to start.
At that stage, the fire alarm system was still down.
Another worker, who is employed on one of its trim lines, said: “When we went in, they gave us cleaning duties to do because the whole line was down.
“They had managed to sort out the fire alarm, which had been offline, so then it was fine in terms of health and safety.
“All the bosses have been in over the weekend trying to sort it out.
“They’ve been doing the best that they can.”
HospitalsacrossEngland and Scotland, including Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, were among organisations in the NHS affected.
The service has said GP surgeries will be open as usual, but some practices will not yet have full access to patient records, prescriptions, appointment systems and in some cases telephone systems.
People who have appointments should still turn but have been asked to bear in mind their practice may not be able to access information needed, they might be asked to return at a later date and things might take longer than usual.
If any appointment is non-urgent, it says patients may want to rearrange their appointment.
Anyone who feels unwell can still contact their GP, visit a pharmacist or call NHS 111.