The Vulnerability of Connected Cars: Toyota’s Latest Data Breach

Toyota Discloses New Data Breach Involving Vehicle, Customer Information

Toyota Motor Corporation, one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers, announced on June 1, 2023, that it had suffered yet another data breach in which improperly configured cloud environments have exposed vehicle and customer data in Japan and overseas for years. This alarming revelation comes just weeks after Toyota admitted to exposing data associated with more than two million vehicles in Japan over a period of more than a decade.

The Affected Environments

According to the Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer, the impacted environments were managed by Toyota Connected Corporation (TC) that contain information related to the vehicles of Japanese customers, as well as the personal information of customers overseas. The data collected was exposed due to insufficient dissemination and enforcement of data handling rules. To ensure the safety of the data, checks are being performed on all environments.

Details of the Data Breach

The incident has potentially exposed in-vehicle device ID, map data updates, and map data creation dates related to around 260,000 vehicles in Japan between February 2015 and May 2023. The affected data belongs to customers who subscribed to G-Book with a G-Book mX or G-Book mX Pro compatible navigation system and subscribed to G-Link or G-Link Lite and renewed the service between February 2015 and March 2022. The data of overseas dealers’ maintenance was also stored in misconfigured environments which included the personal information of customers such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, customer IDs, VINs, and vehicle registration numbers. This data was potentially exposed between October 2016 and May 2023 and impacted some countries in Asia and Oceania. The number of impacted customers has not been disclosed yet.

Impact of the Data Breach

The impact of the data breach could be wide-ranging and severe. Since misconfigured environments stored customer information, including the VINs and car registration numbers, attackers could gain access to the car’s critical systems and track the movement of the vehicle. Furthermore, the customer’s personal information could get used for phishing, identity theft, spear-phishing, and spamming attacks. The exposure of data for years could have provided potentially malicious actors with crucial information to conduct targeted attacks against individuals.

Toyota‘s Response

The organization has issued an official statement in which they have acknowledged the breach and assured the public that they are in the process of notifying all impacted individuals. They have also conducted checks on all environments and found no evidence of potentially exposed data being traded or offered on the internet.

Takeaways and Recommendations

This recent Toyota breach is an alarming reminder that even large organizations recognized globally can be subject to security vulnerabilities. It is extremely crucial that both companies and individuals prioritize the safety and security of their data. Organizations can appoint a dedicated security team to handle the data and secure their networks by conducting regular security assessments and audits while individuals can enable two-factor authentication, use antivirus software, and regularly change their passwords.

Moreover, cloud service providers and application providers should offer tools and best practices to safeguard their cloud environments from security breaches, emphasizing proper cloud configurations and their maintenance. All connected car enterprises must prioritize the security of their customer data and apply stringent security controls across the entire customer journey, from data creation to destruction.

Finally, individuals who were affected by this breach should be vigilant about suspicious activity in the accounts linked with the breached network and consider freezing their credit lines to prevent identity theft. Attend cybersecurity awareness programs or visit reliable online resources to learn about minimizing your digital footprint and safe online behavior.