Denso Becomes Next Japanese Automotive Industry Data Breach Victim
Following in the wake of the cyberattack on a Japanese parts supplier that forced Toyota to shut down its production facilities, a new attack hit a big Japanese automotive parts maker this week. Denso Corporation, a global automotive parts manufacturer headquartered in Japan, announced that a third party gained unauthorized access to Denso group's network in Germany.
No hard information about the exact nature of the attack
The company came up with a brief and to-the-point announcement of the breach, stating that devices that were accessed by the threat actor were "promptly cut off" from the rest of the network. Denso also confirmed that there has been no impact on its other facilities.
This was followed by the statement that the respective law enforcement authorities have been contacted and measures are being taken to further improve security - all standard procedure in similar cases.
The auto parts maker detected the breach four days before the March 14 announcement.
Pandora outfit assumes responsibility
While Denso did not mention any further details in the official statement, the Pandora ransomware gang seems to have claimed responsibility for the attack. The website the Pandora ransomware outfit uses to post leaks contains a claim that a chunky 1.4TB of Denso data has been successfully exfiltrated as part of the attack.
The "proof of attack" files leaked include a purchase order form, datasheets, and other technical documentation belonging to Denso.
Currently, there is no hard evidence or information on whether or not Denso has actually become a victim of a ransomware attack or the incident was merely a data breach, with accompanying data exfiltration. Ransomware gangs like Pandora often use leaks as additional pressure on victims who are already infected with ransomware, in case the victim refuses to pay the ransom, under threat of leaking all stolen data. However, there is no way to know whether Denso's attack included the deployment of a malware component or not.
