Another day, another major data leak has been reported. This time its Volkswagen customers whose personal details have been left unsecured online.
As TechCrunch reports, Volkswagen published a letter detailing how, “On March 10, 2021, we were alerted that an unauthorized third party may have obtained certain customer information.” In total, over 3.3 million customers are impacted by a breach caused by one of the company’s vendors failing to protect personal data which was collected for sales and marketing purposes.
Volkswagen isn’t saying who the vendor is, but the data leaked was collected between 2014 and 2019. The vendor then “left electronic data unsecured” between Aug. 2019 and May 2021, which is ample time for it to be discovered and downloaded. Currently there’s no evidence the data has been accessed or used maliciously.
The personal details exposed include first and last names, personal or business mailing addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. In some cases “information about a vehicle purchased, leased, or inquired about, such as the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), make, model, year, color, and trim packages” were present. Unfortunately, some records included more sensitive information including driver license number, date of birth, Social Security number, and other “information relating to eligibility for a purchase, loan, or lease.” Over 90,000 customers in the US and Canada have had those sensitive details leaked.
Law enforcement and regulators have been informed about the breach and Volkswagen is working with “external cybersecurity experts” to figure out the best response to the exposure. IDX identity protection will be offered to affected customers including “24 months of credit and CyberScan monitoring, a $1,000,000 insurance reimbursement policy, and fully managed identity theft recovery services should that occur.” Full details on how to take advantage of this protection are available in the letter linked to above, and there are steps you can take personally to help protect your identity online.
