UK car dealer Holdcroft Motor Group hit by a ransomware attack

Holdcroft Motor Group, one of the UK’s largest family-run car dealerships, which reported a turnover of £467m with a profit of £10.8m in the last financial year, has fallen victim to what appears to be a ransomware attack, which caused “significant damage” to the company’s infrastructure.

According to an email sent to company employees, the attack happened on July 28, 2022. It claimed that the organization had been the victim of a serious cyber attack that had seriously harmed the IT infrastructure and lost data from our internal storage areas.

Internal investigations have revealed that some of the compromised data may have included employee personal information. Employees are advised to change their passwords for email, online banking, and pensions and avoid using work devices to access personal accounts or websites.

The Stoke-on-Trent-based company, which runs 23 locations in the Midlands and north of England under nine different dealer franchises, has successfully dealt with most of the access problems that its staff had. However, some of their essential systems have either been permanently deleted or irreparably damaged. The incident is being looked into by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Staffordshire Police.

Notably, given the vast quantities of customer personal and financial information, they process, car dealers are becoming an increasingly popular target for ransomware attackers. A significant cyber-attack occurred at the TrustFord dealership in April. Following a significant data breach that left many of LSH Auto’s current and former workers in the dark, more than 100 filed a lawsuit against the company in March.