Nissan Canada revealed on Thursday that the personal information of some customers may have been compromised as a result of a data breach discovered by the company on December 11.
The incident affects individuals who have financed their vehicles through Nissan Canada Finance (NCF) and INFINITI Financial Services Canada. The exact number of impacted customers has yet to be determined, but Nissan is notifying all 1.13 million current and past customers.
While the company believes not all customers are affected, it has decided to offer all of them free credit monitoring services through TransUnion for a period of 12 months. NCF is in the process of sending out emails and letters to individuals whose information may have been compromised.
The attacker could have stolen names, addresses, vehicle details, vehicle identification numbers (VINs), credit scores, loan amounts, and information on monthly payments. Nissan Canada says the incident does not appear to involve payment card information.
There is no indication that Nissan or Infiniti customers in Canada who did not obtain financing through NCF or customers outside of Canada are impacted.
The company is working with law enforcement and data security experts to investigate the incident and has not made any comments on who might be behind the attack. Canadian privacy regulators have also been informed of the breach.
This is not the first time Nissan has been targeted by hackers. Back in 2012, the company reported finding malware on its global information systems network. Last year, the company was forced to shut down its global websites due to a cyberattack apparently motivated by anger over Japan’s controversial whale and dolphin hunts.
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