Toyota Auto Body

History

2021: Data theft as a result of cyber attacks

In May 2021, the American car parts manufacturer Toyota Auto Body, part of the Toyota Motor group, announced a cyber attack on the company. As a result of the hack, secret information was stolen.

According to the business publication Nikkei, citing a statement by Toyota Auto Body, financial information and customer data from Auto Parts Manufacturing Mississippi, which manufactures components for Toyota Corolla sedans, were stolen and posted on the Internet. At the same time, Toyota Auto Body left without comment the question of journalists whether the company received ransom demands. They only noted that no payments were made to hackers.

Hackers hacked the manufacturer of auto parts Toyota Auto Body

Toyota Auto Body believes that the Russian cyber group may be involved in the hack. However, the company did not provide any evidence in this regard. The manufacturer's report said that as a result of the cyber attack, production on conveyors was not affected.

This is not the first hacker attack on a Toyota unit. Earlier it became known that the European company Toyota Boshoku Corporation lost more than $37 million due to fraudsters and the so-called compromise through business correspondence (business email compromise, TECH). The attackers sent letters to employees containing instructions on paying for orders. Falsified documents were so competently compiled that employees did not suspect deception and learned about losses only after transferring money.

Large companies are increasingly becoming victims of TECHfraudsters and are losing large sums because of this. As a rule, a TECHattack implies compromising the legitimate email account of one of the company's employees. After that, the attackers use the account to send fake letters to employees of the same company or its partners, and convince them to transfer funds to front accounts, hiding behind fake invoices and fictitious transactions.^[1]

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