Mercedes-Benz has released the results of an investigation into a data leak incident that affects their USA operations. The incident was reported to the automobile giant by an unnamed third party. Below is an excerpt of the report, namely explaining Mercedes-Benz’s findings and the roots of the case:
On June 11, 2021, a vendor informed Mercedes-Benz that sensitive personal information of less than 1,000 Mercedes-Benz customers and interested buyers was inadvertently made accessible on a cloud storage platform. This confirmation was part of an ongoing investigation conducted in cooperation with the vendor. The issue was uncovered through the dedicated work of an external security researcher.
It is our understanding the information was entered by customers and interested buyers on dealer and Mercedes-Benz websites between January 1, 2014 and June 19, 2017. No Mercedes-Benz system was compromised as a result of this incident, and at this time, we have no evidence that any Mercedes-Benz files were maliciously misused.
Mercedes-Benz initially believed that as many as 1.6 million records could have been compromised. These records include personal data that mostly comprises credit scores, driver license numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card information, and dates of birth.
Later in the report, Mercedes-Benz states that many affected parties have been notified about the data leak. The company says they are offering free subscriptions to a credit monitoring service to any victims of the leak. According to the post, Mercedes-Benz will provide the subscription for 24 months. The automobile manufacturer is also in the process of notifying the relevant government agencies about this incident.
The company ends the report with the following statement:
“Any individuals who have questions or concerns about this incident should contact the Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-367-6372.”
As a whole, this data leak is not nearly as serious as some that occurred recently, but it is proof that this epidemic of data breaches and data leaks is far from over.
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