296,000 Toyota customers affected by a data breach that went undetected since 2017

Toyota Motor Corp on Friday announced that a major leakimpacting more than 296,000 of its customers has been detected.

As per a Reuters report, around 296,019, email addresses and contact numbers have been exposed in the leak. Customers that use Toyota's telematics service T-connect, which is a smartphone app service, that allows users to connect to their vehicle via a network. Individuals, who have signed up for the service since July 2017, will have been affected by this.

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The Japanese automaker disclosed that a contractor who developed the T-connect website had accidentally uploaded parts of the source code with public settings. This went undetected from December 2017 to September 15 of this year.

Based on an assessment by security specialists, Toyota stated in a statement that it was impossible to confirm a third-party access from the access history of the data server where the information was stored. Furthermore, the company said that it cannot be completely ruled out either.

However, Toyota claims that there was no possibility that its user's sensitive information like name, contact information or credit card details could have been leaked.

While the carmaker did not report cases of any such information being misused, it said that there exists a possibility of spamming, phishing scams and unsolicited emails being sent to those whose information has been leaked.

(With inputs from agencies)

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