KIA Motors

KIA Motors Corporation is a car manufacturer and is an automobile company in Korea. Part of the Hyundai-KIA industrial group, the company aims to become one of the leaders in the global automotive industry.

History

2025: Data of 500 thousand Russian car owners were publicly available

In January 2025, it became known that the personal data of almost 0.5 million KIA car owners in Russia were in the public domain. Information published by hackers is dated September 13, 2024.

According to the Telegram channel "Information Leaks," the data are allegedly obtained from the IT infrastructure of the official representative office of "KIA Russia and the CIS." Among the leaked data, surnames, names and patronymics, email addresses (172 thousand unique records), telephone numbers (448 thousand unique), dates of birth, texts of calls to the representative office, hashed passwords and IP addresses were recorded. In addition, the databases contain information about the date and text of requests from car owners. Experts believe that this leak has become one of the largest in the automotive business in Russia.

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Фото: KIA

Sergey Polunin, head of the infrastructure IT solutions protection group at Gazinformservice, stressed the importance of using specialized solutions to prevent leaks.

Reliable database management systems such as Jatoba must be used, where security mechanisms are enabled by default. But even the most modern technologies require the participation of qualified specialists who can correctly configure protection and take into account current threats, "Polunin said.

The published data pose a serious risk to car owners. Attackers can use them for fraud, phishing and other illegal actions. Cybersecurity experts emphasize that companies working with personal data should pay special attention to protecting their IT systems.

According to analysts, this incident confirms the increase in the number of leaks of personal information in 2024. The reasons are not only the increasing number of cyber attacks, but also the lack of preparedness of many companies to prevent them. According to expert estimates, hackers continue to improve hacking methods, creating additional threats to organizations that do not have time to adapt their protection to new realities.^[1]

2024

200 thousand electric vehicles Kia and Hyundai turned out to be defective

At the end of November 2024, Kia and Hyundai announced the recall of more than 200 thousand electric vehicles due to a defect in the integrated charging control unit. The problem can lead to a sudden loss of traction and a vehicle stop, which increases the risk of an accident. Read more here.

Recall of millions of cars with defective airbags

On July 31, 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration USA (NHTSA) announced that more than 50 million cars of different brands can be equipped with defective airbags, which in the event of a traffic accident can cause serious harm to the health of the driver and passengers or even provoke their death. Defective products were marketed by ARC Automotive and Delphi Automotive Systems. More here

2023

Resumption of official car deliveries to Russia

In February 2023, Kia resumed official deliveries of cars to the Russian market. The car dealerships of the Russian Federation received a large batch of new South Korean-assembled cars, which will be sold with a branded factory warranty - 5 years or 150 thousand km.

Kia resumed official deliveries of cars to the Russian Federation

The publication "Motor" gives a list of models of cars imported in Russia, as well as prices for them:

• Kia Picanto: 1,400,000 rubles;
• Kia Soul: 2,100,000 rubles;
• Kia Cerato: 2,200,000 rubles;
• Kia Ceed: 2,500,000 rubles;
• Kia K5: 2,900,000 rubles;
• Kia Sportage: 4,000,000 rubles;
• Kia Sorento: 5,000,000 rubles;
• Kia Stinger: 5,500,000 rubles;
• Kia K9: 9,000,000 rubles.

It is noted that the exhibited copies will cost buyers significantly more than the "gray."

You can save money on buying South Korean-assembled cars using the trade-in program and issuing a loan - under such conditions, the cost of cars will decrease to 400,000 rubles, the portal notes.

At the same time, Kia Executive Vice President U-Chung Chu previously admitted that the company could stop car sales in Russia and leave only maintenance. According to him, Kia does not exclude in 2023 an increase in uncertainty and a "complete shutdown" of the car market in Russia.

Customers of the Renault and Kia car brands in Russia are beginning to gradually abandon these cars and purchase other car brands. This was announced on March 21, 2023 by the chairman of the board of directors of the BN-Motors dealer and vice-president of the Russian Automobile Dealers Association Alexei Podshchekoldin. This is due to the fact that cars of these brands become more difficult to maintain, he said.^[2]

Recall of a thousand defective crossovers due to faulty transmission control software

On February 16, 2023, it became known about the recall in Russia of 5455 Kia Sorento crossovers due to faulty software. The service campaign concerns cars sold on the Russian market from 2021 to 2022. More details here.

2022

Recall of a thousand hybrids that for no reason light up in parking lots

On September 27, 2022, it became known that Kia was recalling about 70 thousand of its Sorento and Sportage SUV models from 2016-2022 due to the likelihood of their sudden ignition. Read more here.

105 thousand defective Kia cars are being recalled in Russia due to faulty airbag software

In Russia, more than 105 thousand defective Kia cars are being recalled due to faulty airbag software. This was announced by the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart) on August 8, 2022. Read more here

2021

A sharp rise in car prices in Russia

Comparison of car prices in 2020-2021

DoppelPaymer ransomware virus attack

In mid-February 2021, it became known that Kia Motors America attacked. virus extortioner DoppelPaymer Hackers sent a ransom demand in the amount of 404 (bitcoin $20 million).

According to Bleeping Computer, the virus encrypted important files and stole confidential information from the servers of the company's North American division. The outage affected many of Kia's services, including Kia's UVO Link mobile app, phone services, a primary web resource, payment systems, an owner portal and internal sites used by dealerships around the world. One of the users Twitter said that when trying to pick up a new car in the cabin, he was told about servers those disconnected due to. hacker attack

Kia attacked the DoppelPaymer ransomware virus, the company demanded a ransom of $20 million

In a ransom memo, hackers threatened to release the stolen data within three working weeks if payment for the decryption tool did not go to the ransomware account. Earlier, the American manufacturer Endemol Shine and the Mexican state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos were attacked by the DoppelPaymer ransomware virus.

Attacks by DoppelPaymer and other ransomware viruses are much more profitable when they disrupt the critical IT operations of large corporations, said Andrea Carcano, co-founder of cybersecurity company Nozomi Networks. - Use scenarios for ransomware viruses should be considered in incident response plans. Decision makers should be prepared to weigh the risks and consequences of different options.

However, Kia Motors America officials deny that the company was the victim of a ransomware virus: "we can currently confirm that we have not received undeniable evidence of an attack or data theft." Representatives of the company explained the problems to a large-scale failure.^[3]

Notes