Volvo Cars suffers a data breach. Is it a ransomware attack?

Swedish automotive manufacturer Volvo Cars revealed that has suffered a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of R&D data.

Swedish automotive manufacturer Volvo Cars revealed that threat actors have stolen R&D data from its systems.

In 2010, Volvo Cars became a subsidiary of the Chinese manufacturer Geely Holding Group, which confirmed that it “has become aware that one of its file repositories has been illegally accessed by a third party.”

“Investigations so far confirm that a limited amount of the company’s R&D property has been stolen during the intrusion,” states Volvo. The company warned that “there may be an impact on the company’s operation” from the hack, sending its stock falling 3.5 percent in Stockholm, to 72.44 kronor ($8.00, 7.06 euros).

Volvo notified relevant authorities and retained third-party experts to investigate the incident.

“Volvo Cars has become aware that one of its file repositories has been illegally accessed by a third party. Investigations so far confirm that a limited amount of the company’s R&D property has been stolen during the intrusion. Volvo Cars has earlier today concluded, based on information available, that there may be an impact on the company’s operation.” reads the notice of cyber security breach published by Volvo. “After detecting the unauthorised access, the company immediately implemented security countermeasures including steps to prevent further access to its property and notified relevant authorities.”

The company pointed out that the cyber attack had no impact on the safety or security of its customers’ cars or their personal data.

A spokesman for Volvo Cars told AFP that the company had not been hit by ransomware and never lost control of its data, but Bleeping Computer first reported that the Snatch ransomware gang has already claimed the attack.

Snatch ransomware operators already leaked 35.9 MB of documents allegedly stolen from Volvo’s servers.

The spokesman also revealed that the car manufacturer was contacted by a third party about the information theft, but did not provide details about the exchange.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, IKEA)

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