Toyota Motor Corp announced on Friday May 12 that 2.15 million vehicle data in Japan, or nearly all customer bases that have signed up for its main cloud service platform since 2012, have been publicly available for a decade due to human error.
This incident also affects customers of their luxury brands, Lexus, and occurs when the world's largest automaker in terms of sales develops a cloud-based vehicle connectivity and data management that is considered crucial to provide features such as autonomous drivers and artificial intelligence.
The matter started in November 2013 and lasted until mid-April, as human error caused the cloud system to be regulated as public rather than private, a Toyota spokesperson said. Affected data may include vehicle locations and vehicle device identification numbers, but there are no malicious use reports, the company said.
"The lack of active detection mechanisms, and activities to detect the whereabouts or absence of things that become public," the spokesperson said in response to the question of why it took so long to realize the error.
Toyota said it would introduce a system to audit cloud settings, establish a system to continue to monitor the arrangement, and thoroughly educate employees about data handling rules.
Affected customers include those who register for the T-Connect service providing a variety of services, including artificial intelligence (AI)-based driver assistance, automatic connection to the call center for vehicle management, and emergency support in traffic accidents or sudden illnesses.
G-Link service users for Lexus vehicle owners were also affected.
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Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission has been notified of the incident, an official said, but declined to provide further details, in accordance with his policy of not commenting on individual incidents.
Toyota said measures to block external access to data had been taken after the matter was revealed, and an investigation was underway on all cloud environments managed by Toyota Connected Corp.
Massive leaks of personal data sometimes occur in Japan. In March, NTT mobile operator DoCoMo said data of up to 5.29 million subscribers may have leaked through companies that are their partners.
This incident is one of the additional challenges for Koji Sato, who recently replaced Akio Toyoda as CEO of Toyota on April 1. Since taking office, Sato has faced security testing issues in Toyota's affiliate, Daihatsu, and received proposals from three European asset managers to increase openness to the lobbying activities of related companies.
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