Thought Leadership
Cyber criminals claim to have gained access to an internal database of the car manufacturer Ford. The compromised data records include sensitive information from more than 44,000 customers.
A group of hackers claims to have successfully penetrated the IT systems of the US automotive company Ford. The allegedly captured data was offered for sale on a relevant hacker forum on Sunday, as reported by Cyber Insider. According to the attackers, who operate under the pseudonym “EnergyWeaponUser”, the data set contains the names, locations and purchase histories of Ford customers.
Minimum selling price indicates other motives
The extremely low selling price of the data is remarkable: The entire data set was offered for just 8 credits – the currency of the hacker forum. This suggests that the attackers are less interested in financial gain than in damaging the company’s image.
The publication is associated with the notorious hacker “IntelBroker”, who has attracted attention in the past for similar actions. IntelBroker is known in the scene for his targeted attacks on large companies, often aiming for publicity rather than monetary gain. Customers from the United States, China, Japan and other international markets are apparently affected.
Ford remains silent
It is still unclear how the hackers gained access to Ford’s internal systems. The car manufacturer has not yet commented on the allegations. The relatively small number of 44,000 affected data records indicates that possibly only a regional section of the Ford customer database was compromised.
