The Defense Armaments Agency announced today that production of 155mm artillery shells at Blackshear Arsenal in Georgia has been halted for two weeks due to multiple ransomware attacks on subcontractors supply parts for the high-tech munitions that are being consumed in high number in the Ukraine. “We are unable to obtain component parts for the fuses and attitude control systems because various manufacturers have had production interruptions due to cyberattacks on manufacturing facilities,” Samuel C Robinson, spokesperson for the Agency, told reporters this morning.
The Federal Bureau of Inquiry is the lead agency in the investigation because the facilities are not directly contracted by the Department of Defense. According to Johnathan Quest, FBI spokesperson, the companies involved provide parts to component manufacturers that supply the Blackshear Arsenal. “In most cases, the initial set of attacks were being investigated by State and local authorities as routine ransomware attacks,” Quest explained.
General Turgidson, Director of the National Critical Infrastructure Security Operations Center (CI-SOC) which is supporting the investigation, it was not until Blackshear reported supply interruptions of multiple contractors that national level interest was focused on the investigation. “For the most part, these are small businesses using highly-automated manufacturing systems to provide small volume, high-tech components for these ammunition components,” Turgidson explained.
“It looked like these were simply ransomware attacks on random organization when we first started receiving reports form our suppliers” Blackshear spokesperson George Forno told reporters; “When we started receiving reports of damaged control systems after ransoms were paid, it
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