Hyundai experienced a data breach that affected car owners and clients who scheduled a test drive in Italy and France. Threat actors had access to the impacted people's email addresses, postal addresses, phone numbers, and car chassis numbers. The affected persons are informed in the data breach letter that unauthorised access to the customer database occurred. In order to assess the severity of the situation, Hyundai Italy has hired outside cybersecurity specialists and contacted the privacy watchdog.

Kia’s Connected Services Hit by Widespread Outage Amid Ransomware Rumors Since Saturday, Kia has faced a major outage affecting its online and connected vehicle services, leaving owners across the U.S. unable to access key functions. Customers report being locked out of bill payments, remote vehicle unlocking, and pre-conditioning features critical during a severe winter storm. The outage has also disrupted new account setups, preventing buyers from registering vehicles or completing transactions. Dealers are similarly impacted, with access to Kia’s proprietary portals KDealer and the Kia Global Service Information System (KGSIS) blocked, halting operations that rely on these tools. While Kia has not confirmed the cause, speculation of a ransomware attack has emerged, fueled by unverified claims from dealerships and online forums. The automaker’s parent company, Hyundai, has not yet responded to inquiries. Ransomware attacks, which encrypt data and demand payment for decryption, have previously targeted the auto industry, including Renault (2017) and Honda (2017, 2020). Kia’s outage follows recent high-profile cyber incidents in the sector, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in connected infrastructure. As of now, Kia has not provided a timeline for resolution.