The PLAY ransomware gang allegedly released online sensitive personal information that was purportedly acquired from Arnold Clark, one of the biggest auto dealerships in the United Kingdom. After seeing strange activity on its network in December, the corporation stated in a Tweet on January 3 that it had safeguarded client data. However, it did not specify the nature of the cyberattack.
“Our priority has been to protect our customers’ data, our systems and our third-party partners,” stated the company, adding that “this has been achieved.”
Following the disclosure last week of what appears to be client information on the extortion website of the PLAY ransomware gang, its statement has not been updated. The media’s request for comment was not immediately answered by Arnold Clark’s press office. Along with addresses and phone numbers, the data also contains passport information and National Insurance numbers, which are similar to Social Security numbers in the United States. Customers of the Glasgow-based company’s bank records and auto credit papers were also made public.
It is conceivable that the breach contains data pertaining to both individual and business clients. According to Arnold Clark, which employs more than 11,000 employees across 193 dealerships in Britain, the hack caused temporary interruption to its business and, sadly, customers. Arnold Clark apologized for any difficulty it may have caused. In December, the PLAY group targeted the British company with the Belgian city of Antwerp and the world’s largest cloud computing provider Rackspace.
It’s unclear how much the event has affected the business’s operations. According to the statement from January 3, the external security partners have now been performing an extensive review of the entire IT network and infrastructure, which is a mammoth task, and they are advising the IT team on how to re-enable the network and systems in a safe, secure, and phased manner.
Arnold Clark’s newsroom, which generally publishes a new article every few days that includes automobile reviews, had not been updated as of Monday morning. Before the event was found, the most recent post was posted on December 20.
