Boeing says it was hit by WannaCry virus, but it's a 'limited intrusion'

Boeing headquarters in Chicago.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The WannaCry computer virus struck Boeing on Wednesday, but the company says production was not affected by the attack.

Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, sent out an urgent memo saying he was concerned about the virus, which was "metastasizing rapidly" and could hit the equipment used to test planes or "spread to airplane software," The Seattle Times reports. Boeing released a statement late Wednesday afternoon saying it determined that a "limited intrusion of malware" affected a "small number of systems. Remediations were applied and this is not a production and delivery issue."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.