Over 2 million Toyota cars were traceable for 10 years due to flawed software

Over two million Toyota vehicle owners were affected by a software security breach that made these cars easy to track by hackers for 10 years. The automaker announced the massive lapse to customers in Japan and this involved vehicles that were fitted with the company’s connected car technology over the years. In its statement, Toyota revealed that the data breach on its cloud environment exposed the location of about 2.15 million vehicles for more than a decade.

Toyota said that the leak happened due to a database misconfiguration, which would give anyone access to the cloud system without a password. The security notice was first published in the automaker’s newsroom in its home market Japan. The incident involved vehicles equipped with Toyota’s T-Connect G-Link, G-Link Lite, or G-Book services, and was active between January 2, 2012, and April 17, 2023.

Some of the information exposed included the in-vehicle GPS navigation terminal ID number, the chassis number and the vehicle’s location information with time stamps. In its statement, Toyota said that it’s “continuing to conduct an investigation including all cloud environments managed by the company.

So far, the company has not announced any cases of the leaked data being used for malicious purposes. The data though does not include the personal information of the customers, the company clarified. The automaker also said that there is a possibility of leaks of video recordings taken outside the vehicle.

Toyota is individually reaching out to customers affected by the data breach and sending an apology note for the same. The company has also set up a dedicated call centre to answer queries and concerns that customers may have. So far, the data leak seems to be restricted to select markets. The India arm of the Japanese carmaker has not reported any data breach.