Over the next few weeks, Nissan Oceania will make contact with around 100,000 people in Australia and New Zealand whose data was pilfered in a December 2023 attack on its systems - perhaps by the Akira ransomware gang.
The cyberbaddies stole some form of government identification from up to ten percent of victims.
Among the data stolen from the automotive manufacturer was info on 4,000 Medicare cards - Australia's national health insurance scheme - plus 7,500 driving licenses, 220 passports, and 1,300 tax file numbers.
The remaining 90 percent of folks had other info stolen - perhaps copies of loan-related transaction statements, employment details, or salary information.
The heist may also include personally identifiable information such as dates of birth.
In Australia, affected individuals are being offered 12 months of free credit monitoring from Equifax, and in New Zealand, a similar service is being made available through Centrix.
Individuals in both territories will also have access to IDCARE's services for protecting against the misuse of stolen data, and those who need ID documents replaced can claim the cost back with Nissan Oceania.
The company didn't say at the time whether ransomware was involved, and still hasn't mentioned it today, but the original intrusion was claimed by the Akira group.
Data supposedly belonging to Nissan Oceania is available to download via Akira's website, suggesting that if ransomware was involved the automaker refused to pay.
Akira claims to have stolen 100 GB worth of data, including personal data.
Akira has been responsible for attacks on many other major organizations since spinning up in March 2023, including cosmetics giant Lush and Stanford University, which just this week admitted to a data leak of 27,000 people's information.
El Reg sent a request for comment to Nissan Oceania to seek comment on the possibility ransomware caused this incident, but it did not immediately respond.
This Cyber News was published on go.theregister.com. Publication date: Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:58:53 +0000