Mercedes-Benz USA inadvertently releases information on almost 1,000 consumers

On Thursday Mercedes-Benz USA announced that a cloud storage platform had accidentally exposed the sensitive personal information of almost 1,000 customers and potential purchasers.

Between January 2014 and June 2017, customers and potential buyers supplied driver’s license and social security numbers, self-reported credit scores, and credit card information on the dealer and company websites was compromised in the incident. 

According to Mercedes, anyone with credit card information, a driver’s license number, or a social security number in the data will be given a free two-year subscription to a credit monitoring program.

According to the automaker, the “vendor certified that the fault is addressed and that such an incident cannot be replicated,”. It added: “No Mercedes-Benz system was compromised as a result of this incident, and at this time, we have no evidence that any Mercedes-Benz files were maliciously misused.”

Mercedes-Benz USA further stated that the person with the knowledge of  “specific software program and tool expertise,” can get access to that information, and “an internet search would not yield any information contained in these files.”

The continuing inquiry began with the goal of determining if about 1.6 million unique records, mostly consisting of names, email addresses, phone numbers, and information about purchased vehicles were reachable.

It was eventually revealed, however, that just 1,000 persons were impacted.

Mercedes-Benz USA has begun contacting people and will notify appropriate government authorities as soon as possible, according to the company.