Volkswagen Group investigates hacker data breach claims

Volkswagen, the world’s second-largest automaker, said that it’s investigating claims of a data breach. So far, the company has not spotted any breached systems or exposed customer data.

A hacker group’s claims of a Volkswagen Group data breach could be just hot air, as the German auto giant says no unauthorized access was detected. While the company is aware of the claims, so far, there’s no indication that attackers accessed any of its systems.

“In the present case, according to the current state of knowledge of the internal investigations, there was no unauthorized access by external third parties to personal data of customers or sensitive company data. Consequently, no misuse of such data has been identified,” Volkswagen AG’s spokesperson told Cybernews.

The automaker said it will continue to investigate all available information to rule out any damage to the company or its customers. Volkswagen’s spokesperson added that “If it should prove helpful for further comprehensive clarification,” the company will involve law enforcement in the investigation.

“We take any reports of unauthorized access to data very seriously. We follow up on substantive reports immediately and investigate them carefully. If a suspicion of unauthorized access and use of data is confirmed, we always involve the relevant authorities,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, the Stormous ransomware gang posted the Volkswagen Group on its dark web leak site, which it uses to showcase its latest victims. The threat actors claim they have access to user account data, authentication tokens, identity access data, and various other details.

According to Cybernews’ dark web tracker Ransomlooker, Stormous has attacked 34 organizations over the last 12 months.