Over the next few weeks, Nissan Oceania will contact around 100,000 people in Australia and New Zealand whose data was stolen in an attack on its systems in December 2023 – possibly by the Akira ransomware gang.
Information sharing to prevent cyber attacks
The cybercriminals stole some form of government identification from up to ten percent of victims. Among the data stolen from the carmaker was information on 4,000 Medicare cards – Australia's national health insurance scheme – plus 7,500 driving licences, 220 passports and 1,300 tax registration numbers.
The remaining 90 percent of people had other information stolen — perhaps copies of loan-related transaction statements, employment records or salary information. The heist may also include personally identifiable information (PII) such as birth dates.
Some of those affected by the breach were customers of financial services that Nissan operated and branded for rival automakers Mitsubishi, Renault, Infiniti, LDV and RAM.
