Chinese EV maker Nio is being blackmailed by hacker for US$2.25 million in bitcoin after data breach
- Shanghai-based carmaker ‘is doing everything possible to support its users’, CEO says
- Internal investigation finds that part of Nio’s user and vehicle sales information before August 2021 has been compromised
“An internal investigation revealed that part of Nio’s user and vehicle sales information prior to August 2021 had been compromised,” Lu Long, the company’s chief information security scientist and head of its information security committee, said in Tuesday’s statement. “The company strongly condemns such unlawful acts and will not bow down to cybercrimes.”
The carmaker said it had reported the incident to regulators and will work with the authorities to investigate it.
“Once targeted by hackers, companies do not have many options. They can either agree to whatever the hackers ask for, which could cost them a lot, or report the incident to authorities, which may again damage their brand and could cost them some potential buyers in the future,” said David Zhang, a visiting professor at the engineering department of Huanghe Science and Technology University.