Shock for many Toyota customers: Hackers could have snatched data from customers of the Japanese automaker in almost 300,000 cases. The company is announcing it.
Hackers likely got hold of the data of about 300,000 customers of Japanese auto giant Toyota. The group announced this Friday in the city of Toyota. A press release states:
Accordingly, drivers using the Toyota online service T-Connect are affected.
It is unclear whether German customers were affected.
It was not disclosed whether Toyota customers from Germany were also affected. “We don’t have a list of data by region or country,” said a spokesperson for Toyota Germany. The company in Japan said that other data, such as names, phone numbers, credit cards or other information, is unlikely to have been leaked.
However, experts consider such incidents to be serious, as the underlying information that is compromised could be used to launch more dangerous phishing attacks on those affected.
Apparently also vulnerability with suppliers
The latest incident is a series of data leaks and cybersecurity incidents at Japanese companies and suppliers. In March 2019, the data of 3.1 million customers fell into the hands of hackers. This February, Toyota was forced to temporarily close its manufacturing facilities after a supplier was hacked.
In the current situation, the weak point was apparently also with a supplier. T-Connect put some of the program code on the Github platform and accidentally made the code public in December 2017. “The published source code contained an access key to the data server that gave access to email addresses and customer management numbers.”
Source: ZDF
I’m Harold O’Connor and I work as an author and editor for News Unrolled, a news website dedicated to delivering the latest world events. With my in-depth research skills, passion for news writing, and keen eye for detail, I strive to provide readers with accurate information on current affairs from around the globe.
