Nissan data breach exposes data of almost 18K customers

Nissan data breach overview: 

• Who: Nissan has begun sending data breach notification letters to nearly 18,000 of its customers that had their private information exposed. 
• Why: The automakers disclosed that the data breach was the result of a poorly configured database created by one of its third-party service providers to hold Nissan customer data. 
• Where: Nissan sent data breach notification letters to customers nationwide. 

Nissan North America has begun issuing notifications about a data breach that affected one of its third-party service providers and exposed the private information of almost 18,000 of the automaker’s customers. 

The data breach was reported to the Office of the Maine Attorney General earlier this week, with Nissan disclosing that a total of 17,998 of its customers were impacted, reports Bleeping Computer.

Nissan reportedly revealed that one of its software development vendors—which was given the data of Nissan customers to use in testing and developing for software solutions—notified the company of the data breach back in June. 

The data breach, meanwhile, has been blamed on a purportedly poorly configured database used by the software development vendor to hold the Nissan customer data, reports Bleeping Computer. 

Nissan reportedly made sure the exposed database was secured upon learning about the data breach, before launching an internal investigation that, on Sept. 26, 2022, verified unauthorized access had likely occurred. 

Full names, birthdates, finance account numbers of Nissan customers exposed in data breach

Customer data exposed in the data breach included full names, birthdates, and Nissan finance account numbers, reports Bleeping Computer. 

Other private Nissan customer information such as credit card details and Social Security numbers was reportedly not compromised in the data breach, however. 

Nissan also said it does not have any evidence that any of the exposed data has been misused to this date and that it is simply sending out the notices to customers in an abundance of caution, reports Bleeping Computer. 

Customers who receive a data breach notice will reportedly also be offered a free one-year membership to identity protection service Experian, to help protect them from harm that could arise as a result of their data being exposed. 

Nissan was included in a class action lawsuit filed last November by a consumer arguing the automaker sold certain Nissan and Infiniti vehicles equipped with 3G modem technology that has since become obsolete. 

Have you been impacted by a data breach? Let us know in the comments! 

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