Volkswagen and Audi fell victim to a data breach.
Volkswagen has disclosed a major breach that appears to affect more than 3.3 million customers. Those most affected are buyers of Audi. The people affected are located in Canada and the United States.
On Friday, the major carmaker said that some data used for sales and marketing purposes between 2014 and 2019 had been left exposed online for some time between August 2019 and May 2021.The company did not give an exact timeline.
It appears that the breach was initiated by a partner-supplier, whose name has not been published.
Audi and Volkswagen were notified that “an unauthorized user” may have accessed this information on March 10.
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According to Volkswagen, the information that may have been compromised is: first and last name, personal and/or mailing addresses, email addresses and phone numbers, vehicle-related data (numbers, makes, models, years and colors).
Volkswagen has informed the relevant authorities about the incident.
Reuters reports that most of the data exposed was phone numbers and email addresses. However, about 90,000 Audi customers are most affected, with data including driver's licenses, dates of birth, social security numbers, account or loan numbers and tax identification numbers said to have been exposed.
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The company said it will offer free credit monitoring to all customers affected by this data breach.
The company also warns customers to be careful, as exposed data can be used for fraud and phishing attacks.
Volkswagen is informing all affected customers.
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The automaker says that cybersecurity experts (outside the company) are investigating the incident.
“Audi and Volkswagen are working with cybersecurity experts to assess and respond to the situation and have taken steps to address the issue with the supplier involved,” the companies said.
Source: ZDNet
