Ford denies it was hit by data breach, says customer data is safe

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Data being shared online came from elsewhere, Ford is saying

Ford Dealership
(Image credit: Gopixa / Shutterstock)
  • Earlier this week, EnergyWeaponUser shares a database, claiming it was stolen from Ford
  • Ford responds by launching an investigation
  • The investigation concluded that the data belonged to a third party, Ford said

Ford has denied suffering a data breach frecently, saying the information circulating around the web belongs to a third party and is, for the most part, publicly available.

A known leaker with the alias EnergyWeaponUser recently posted a new thread on BreachForums, claiming to be sharing Ford’s data for free. “Today, I have uploaded the Ford Motor Company internal database for you to download, thanks for reading and enjoy!,” the hacker said at the time.

“In November 2024, Ford Motor Company, an American multinational automobile company suffered a data breach,” the post further added. “It exposes 44k records of customer names, physical locations, bought product.”

No breach

A small sample was shared, in which hackers could find people’s names, postal addresses, country codes, customer type codes, city information, sales types, account codes, last update timestamps, and other records.

After the thread surfaced, the company confirmed looking into the allegations of data theft.

"Ford is aware and is actively investigating the allegations there has been a breach of Ford data," spokesperson Richard Binhammer told the press at the time. "Our investigation is active and ongoing."

Now, a few days later, Ford told the media that its data was secure. In a statement to BleepingComputer, the company said: “Ford’s investigation has determined that there was no breach of Ford’s systems or customer data. The matter involved a third-party supplier and a small batch of publicly available dealers’ business addresses. It is our understanding that the matter has now been resolved.”

We now wait to see EnergyWeaponUser’s response. However, given the fact that they were willing to give away such a database, lends credence to Ford’s claims. After all, all registered BreachForums members could grab the archives for eight forum credits, which is roughly two dollars.

Via BleepingComputer

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.