Ferrari hacked and gets ransom demand

Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari said on Monday that a hacker recently demanded ransom from the company related to certain client contact details, adding that the breach had no impact on the company's operations.

Ferrari said it notified its customers of the potential data exposure and the nature of the incident.

The company said it had started an investigation with a third-party cybersecurity firm and informed relevant authorities.

Ferrari said certain data relating to its clients was exposed including names, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers. However, no payment details and/or bank account numbers and/or other sensitive payment information, nor details of Ferrari cars owned or ordered have been stolen, it added.

Ferrari says it won’t be paying a ransom to the hackers.

“As a policy, Ferrari will not be held to ransom as paying such demands continues to fund criminal activity and enables threat actors to perpetuate their attacks. Moreover, it does not fundamentally change the data exposure,” it said in its customer letter.

“Upon receipt of the ransom demand, we started an investigation in collaboration with a leading global third-party forensics firm and have confirmed the data’s authenticity. In addition, we informed the relevant authorities and are confident they will investigate to the full extent of the law.

“We have worked with third-party experts to further reinforce our systems and are confident in their resilience. We can also confirm the breach has had no impact on the operational functions of our company.”

Other car brands have been hit by hackers in recent years. In 2021 hackers stole research & development data from Volvo, while in 2020 a cyber attack shut down Honda production in the US.