Mercedes-Benz US asserts 'no files misused' in data breach

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) said that it has not found evidence that the personal information of less than 1,000 of its customers and interested buyers were misused.

The information was entered by the said people in its websites between January 1, 2014 and June 19, 2017, and were leaked on a cloud storage platform, MBUSA said. The leak was reported by the carmaker's vendor to Mercedes-Benz this month. 

An external security researcher was employed to investigate the data leaking incident. 

MBUSA said that according to the vendor, the personal information for the mentioned individuals is comprised mainly of self-reported credit scores, a small number of driver license numbers, social security numbers, credit card information, and dates of birth.

To view the information, one would need knowledge of special software programs and tools as an internet search would not return any information contained in these files, MBUSA added. 

Mercedes-Benz USA has already begun notifying individuals whose  information were affected about this incident.

Any individual who had credit card information, a driver's license number, or a social security number included in the data breach will be offered complimentary 24-month subscription to a credit monitoring service, MBUSA said. 

"Data security is a serious matter for MBUSA. Our vendor confirmed that the issue is corrected and that such an event cannot be replicated. We will continue our investigation to ensure that this situation is properly addressed," MBUSA assured. 

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