© Reuters. Toyota (TM) apologizes after additional data breach and expands investigation
Toyota (NYSE::) issued an apology on Wednesday after the Japanese automaker announced an investigation into a data leak on May 12 that revealed that additional information on customers in some countries in Oceania and Asia, excluding Japan, may have been left publicly available from October 2016. to May 2023.
“Because we believe this incident was also caused by inadequate publication and enforcement of data handling rules, since our last announcement, we have implemented a system to monitor cloud formations,” Toyota said in a statement.
The company said customer information that may be accessible from abroad includes names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, vehicle identification and registration numbers.
This latest incident follows an announcement earlier this month that the vehicle data of 2.15 million users in Japan, nearly all of their customers who have subscribed to major cloud services platforms since 2012, had been unlocked for an entire decade due to a human error.
The company has not disclosed how many customers have been affected by this latest incident, exactly which countries they are located in, or if customers of its luxury brand Lexus have been affected.
Toyota said it also investigated whether there was any third-party copying or use of its customer data and found no evidence of such use, adding that the vehicle’s location and credit card information were not included in the incident.
According to the spokesperson, the company initially discovered the incident by accident during inspections that began on April 7. The reveal was announced earlier this month.
TM shares were up 0.20% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.