As we reported in our recent article, the company that develops the EasyParkpublished an announcement on its website, warning of a data breach it detected on December 10, 2023, affecting an unknown number of its millions of users .
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EasyPark is a Swedish company that creates apps that help people find parking spaces and electric vehicle charging stations. The company provides digital parking services in 20 countries and over 4,000 cities, covering most of Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The EasyPark app has over 10 million downloads on Google Play, while its other apps, RingGo (focused on the UK) and ParkMobile (focused on the US), have 5 million downloads each.
As reported by BleepingComputer, ParkMobile revealed a massive data breach in 2021, when stolen data for 21 million customers was exposed. This database was later posted for free on a hacker forum.
Although a company spokesperson declined to provide details about this new breach and how many customers were affected, he told BleepingComputer that a portion of European users were affected, suggesting that the incident primarily concerns users of the EasyPark app.
The company's announcement states that some customer information has been leaked, and may include:
- Name
- Phone number
- Address
- Some digits of their credit cards or IBAN
See also: Canada: Data breach affects government employees
The above can help cybercriminals carry out effective phishing against EasyPark users, which the company clearly warns about in its data breach notification.
However, the company clarifies that the disclosed data does not pose a risk of unauthorized transactions and no such activities have resulted from the cybersecurity incident. Users affected by this incident will receive individual notifications from EasyPark via in-app messages, push notifications, email and SMS.
For now, the services continue to be offered as normal, while EasyPark's security team is implementing additional security and privacy measures to ensure that the negative impact of the incident is limited. Data protection authorities in Sweden, the United Kingdom and Switzerland have also been informed of the incident.
As a precautionary measure, and as the nature of the cybersecurity incident remains unclear, it would be wise for all users to reset their passwords and do the same on all online platforms where they may use the same credentials.
No ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack on EasyPark.
See also: PJ&A: Data breach affects approximately 9 million patients
A data breach can have significant financial consequences for a business. This can include both the cost of dealing with the breach and lost revenue due to loss of customer trust. In addition, a data breach can cause significant damage to a business’s reputation and image. This can lead to a decrease in the value of the company and make it more difficult to attract new customers or investors.
A data breach can also lead to legal consequences. This can include fines from regulators, lawsuits from customers or other stakeholders, and the need for legal defense.
Finally, a data breach can have an impact on a business's ability to operate effectively. This can include the need to restore systems, the loss of critical data, and the disruption of normal operations.
Source: bleepingcomputer
