Hackers Steals Customer Data From Car Parking Giant

Cybersecurity issues have not lessened during the Christmas holiday period, after Europe’s largest parking app organisation confirmed it has been hacked.

In a notification, Sweden-cased EasyPark Group, the owner of brands including RingGo and ParkMobile, confirmed that customer data has been stolen during the cyberattack.

Unfortunately it seems the hackers were able to steal customer names, phone numbers, physical addresses, email addresses and parts of credit card numbers. Parking data was apparently not compromised.

Data breach

The one piece of good news is that all the partial data that has been stolen means “someone cannot make payments using this incomplete information.”

EasyPark confirmed that it has reported the data breach to the “appropriate authorities”, and its services continue to operate as normal.

However it did not reveal how many customers have had their data stolen, or which countries they reside in.

The company said its ParkMobile brand, which has 50 million users in the United States, has not been affected.

“On December 10, 2023, we discovered we were the victim of a cyber attack.” the firm said. “The attack resulted in a breach of non-sensitive customer data.”

“We took swift measures to stop the cyber attack and have notified the appropriate authorities. We are reaching out to affected customers,” it added.

It added that it “deeply cares” about its customers and wanted to keep them “fully informed” about this incident.

“Our security team, including external security experts, is working hard to ensure effective security and privacy measures are in place,” it added.

It warned customers to be mindful of possible phishing attempts, but is not yet aware of instances of the data being used or published, and had not received a ransom demand.

Deeply sorry

“At EasyPark Group, we take protecting your privacy seriously and strive to deliver the best possible experience for you. Experiencing a data breach naturally creates concerns for all of us,” the firm stated.

“We are deeply sorry this happened and will continue to work hard every day to earn your trust,” it concluded.

The hack demonstrates the risk of the ongoing move away from physical infrastructure (parking metres, parking attendants etc) to an online model, where data is centralised and thus potentially vulnerable.

This data breach can be viewed as troubling, as not only have the hackers obtained the physical addresses of victims, but also their parking locations such as for work or shopping purposes.

EasyPark is said to be Europe’s biggest parking app in terms of coverage, and its EasyPark, ParkMobile, RingGo and Park-line apps operate in more than 4,000 cities across 23 countries, including the US, Australia, New Zealand and most western European countries.