Toyota Data Breach – Over 2 Million Customers Data Exposed

A part of the data that Toyota Motor Corporation entrusted to Toyota Connected Corporation to handle was found to have been made public as a result of misconfiguration of the cloud environment.

Between November 6, 2013, and April 17, 2023, the breach made 2,150,000 users’ car-location data available for ten years.

“It turned out that some of the data managed by Toyota Connected Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as our company) were open to the public due to misconfiguration of the cloud environment,” reads the security notice published in the company.

The company claimed to have taken steps to limit access from the outside and is still looking into this matter, including all cloud environments that TC manages.

Information Made Public By The Breach

Customers who used the company’s T-Connect G-Link, G-Link Lite, or G-BOOK services between January 2, 2012, and April 17, 2023, had their information made public due to this issue.

T-Connect is Toyota’s in-car smart service that provides voice assistance, customer service support, vehicle status and management, and on-road emergency assistance.

Further, the misconfigured database revealed the following data:

• The in-vehicle GPS navigation terminal ID number,
• The chassis number, and
• Vehicle location information with time data.

The company claims that the lack of thoroughness and adequate explanation of the data handling regulations was the primary cause of this occurrence.  

The company planned to implement a system to audit cloud settings, carry out a setting survey of the cloud environment, and develop a system to continuously check the setting status and fully educate staff and strive to prevent a recurrence.

While there is no proof of data exploitation, unauthorized individuals may have obtained historical data and even the real-time location of 2.15 million Toyota vehicles.

The Toyota statement, released on the Japanese ‘Toyota Connected’ website, discusses the risk of video recordings captured outside the car being revealed due to this occurrence.

The defined exposure time for these recordings is between November 14, 2016, and April 4, 2023, or just under seven years.

Again, depending on the circumstances, the timing, and the location, the release of these videos would not significantly violate the privacy of the car owners.

“We will individually send an apology and notification to the registered email address for customers whose in-vehicle terminal ID, chassis number, vehicle location information, and time may have been leaked. In addition, we will set up a dedicated call center to answer questions and concerns from customers”, the company said.

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