Toyota has confirmed a second batch of customer data has been exposed online and appears to have been available since October 2016. It is the second data breach at the automaker in a matter of weeks, and both issues are said to have been caused by incorrect “enforcement of data handling rules”.
The information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and vehicle identification details, Toyota said today. It was available to access via an unsecured cloud server.
Toyota discovers second driver data breach
Today’s announcement says the latest Toyota data breach was caused by “insufficient dissemination and enforcement of data handling rules”. The problematic server has now been secured, the statement added.
It is the second such incident at Toyota in a matter of weeks. On May 12, the company announced that vehicle data from 2.15 million users in Japan, most of whom had signed up for its main cloud services platform since 2012, had been available to the public.
“There was a lack of active detection mechanisms and activities to detect the presence or absence of things that became public,” a Toyota spokesperson said at the time.
Toyota has since introduced active detection to its network, and this led to the latest problem being discovered.
“Subsequently [to the initial discovery] we conducted an investigation for all cloud environments managed by Toyota Connected Corporation [the company’s technology arm],” the spokesperson said. “It was further discovered that a part of the data containing customer information had been potentially accessible externally.”
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The issue was caused a setting error in the company’s cloud environment, and led to customer data collected by overseas dealers for the handling and managing maintenance inspections of vehicles being exposed.
Customers affected are being contacted via email and phone today. A separate hotline has been organised to deal specifically with any worries caused.
“We will deal with the case in each country in accordance with the personal information protection laws and related regulations of each country,” Toyota said.
Toyota cybersecurity problems mount
Toyota, the world’s largest car company by sales, has become a regular target for hackers.
Security researcher Eaton Zveare said in February that he had gained access to Toyota’s Global Supplier Preparation Information Management System (GSPIMS), a web app used by Toyota employees and their suppliers to coordinate projects, parts, surveys and other tasks related to the global Toyota supply chain.
“I discovered what was essentially a backdoor login mechanism in the Toyota GSPIMS website/application that allowed me to log in as any corporate Toyota user or supplier just by knowing their email,” explained Zveare in his blog.
He reported everything he found to the company. “In seven days, I reported four different security issues to Toyota, all of which were classified as ‘critical’,” he said.
In February of last year, the company experienced a less benign intrusion. It was forced to shut down its plants in Japan after a supplier, Kojima Industries, fell victim to a cyberattack.
