Analysis Summary

Last year, a threat actor targeted Nissan North America (Nissan)'s external VPN and forced the corporation to shut down its systems in exchange for a ransom. This resulted in a data breach for Nissan. The automaker learned of the attack in early November 2023 and only now realized that over 53,000 present and past employees' personal data had been compromised.

The company notified, “As shared during the Nissan Town Hall meeting on December 5, 2023, Nissan learned on November 7, 2023, that it was the victim of a targeted cyberattack. Upon learning of the attack, Nissan promptly notified law enforcement and began taking immediate actions to investigate, contain, and successfully terminate the threat.”

Nissan revealed that the threat actor first attacked its external VPN, shut down a few corporate systems, and then demanded a ransom. The company states that none of its systems were encrypted during the attack. They were able to evaluate the situation, control the problem, and eliminate the threat by collaborating with external cybersecurity specialists. Following an inquiry, it was discovered that the intruder had gained access to a few files on network and local drives, most of which contained business-related data.

However, the company discovered on February 28 that some personal data had been found in the leaked data, mostly about current and past Nissan employees. A personal identifier (such as a name) and social security number were among the information exposed, the organization reported in a data breach notification to the Office of the Maine Attorney General. Financial information was not found in the files that the threat actor compromised.

Nissan states that it is unaware of any improper use of the disclosed data. However, Nissan included information in the letter advising recipients on signing up for a free 24-month credit monitoring and identity theft protection service through Experian to lessen the possibility of this data exposure.

Over the past few years, Nissan has been the subject of multiple security incidents that have impacted different divisions of the Japanese automaker. Nissan Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) declared at the beginning of December 2023 that it was looking into a possible cyberattack and data breach. Nissan acknowledged in March 2024 that data belonging to 100,000 of its customers had been compromised by the Akira ransomware.

Nissan North America experienced an indirect breach in January 2023 when a poorly designed database allowed a third-party technology service provider to access the personal information of 17,988 customers. Twenty gigabytes of source code for corporate applications and tools were made public two years prior when Nissan North America used default (admin/admin) credentials to leave an open Git server repository online. Only after being alerted by a researcher who saw people spreading the source code via torrents did Nissan take action and take the repository down.

Impact

• Exposure of Sensitive Data
• Identity Theft
• Unauthorized Access

Remediation

• Regularly change passwords for all accounts and use strong, unique passwords for sensitive accounts.
• Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all accounts to add an extra layer of security to login processes.
• Consider the use of phishing-resistant authenticators to further enhance security. These types of authenticators are designed to resist phishing attempts and provide additional protection against social engineering attacks.
• Regularly monitor network activity for any unusual behavior, as this may indicate that a cyberattack is underway.
• Organizations need to stay vigilant and follow best practices for cybersecurity to protect their systems and data from potential threats. This includes regularly updating software and implementing strong access controls and monitoring tools.
• Develop a comprehensive incident response plan to respond effectively in case of a security breach or data leakage.
• Maintain regular backups of critical data and systems to ensure data recovery in case of a security incident.
• Adhere to security best practices, including the principle of least privilege, and ensure that users and applications have only the necessary permissions.
• Establish a robust patch management process to ensure that security patches are evaluated, tested, and applied promptly.
• Conduct security audits and assessments to evaluate the overall security posture of your systems and networks.
• Implement network segmentation to contain and isolate potential threats to limit their impact on critical systems.
• Never trust or open links and attachments received from unknown sources/senders.