Danish BMW dealer Jan Nygaard is currently being blackmailed by the hacker group DragonForce, who are threatening to publish stolen data.
Danish car dealer Jan Nygaard has been threatened by the hacker group DragonForce, which claims to have stolen 87 gigabytes of data from the company. The group has set a virtual clock with a five-day countdown, after which they threaten to leak the stolen data.
Jan Nygaard, who is known for selling Mini and BMW cars, has not yet commented on the matter. It is therefore unknown what data is involved and whether customers have been informed of the situation. It is also unclear whether the Danish Data Protection Agency has been notified of the potential data breach.
This is reported by ComputerWorld .
DragonForce is a relatively new hacking group that was first discovered in 2023. The group is believed to be based in Malaysia and has been linked to attacks on major companies such as Coca-Cola Singapore and the Ohio Lottery.
There are indications that DragonForce has connections to the former LockBit group, which the FBI stopped in 2024. DragonForce appears to have further developed LockBit's hacking tools and is now using them to attack companies like Jan Nygaard.
What the attack on Jan Nygaard specifically entails is still unknown. It is not known whether the hackers have demanded a ransom or what types of data they have gained access to.
The situation raises questions about data security at car dealerships and the risk to parking stalls if personal data ends up in the wrong hands.
Jan Nygaard's lack of response creates uncertainty about how they are handling the threat from DragonForce. It is crucial that the company takes the situation seriously and informs affected parties if there is a risk of misuse of their data.
It is still unknown what consequences this attack will have for Jan Nygaard and the car dealership's customers. But it is far from the first time that a hacker group has gone directly after both cars and car dealerships.
In July 2024, nearly 15,000 car dealerships in the United States were hit by the same wave of hacker attacks. The attack was so severe that there was initial talk of paying a ransom to get rid of the hackers.
– We feel it is important to share that we do not believe we will be able to get all dealers live by June 30th, it said immediately after the attack from software provider CDK Global which had been shut down.
A little later that year – namely in October 2024 – it emerged that Fisker Inc., founded and run by Danish car designer Henrik Fisker, had also been hit by a hacker attack.
Digital attacks have been used as part of the war in Ukraine. In March 2022, for example, a group of Ukrainians shut down all charging stations in St. Petersburg. The Ukrainians had actually set up the charging stations themselves.
The company AutoEnterprise subsequently shared a video of the dead charging stations. The video shows how one charging station can do nothing but display the message “Putin is a dickhead.”
