Toyota website hacked by a former contractor to steal trade secrets

Toyota representatives have filed a complaint against former contractor Ibrahimshah Shahulhameed, accusing the man of violating Kentucky's Trade Secret Act by hacking into the toyotasupplier.com website – utilized by the firm to exchange sensitive information with suppliers – to copy sensitive data and alter software.



It’s well known that some employees or contractors – especially those who know how your company’s systems work – can cause a lot of damage if they’re fired or if they part the firm with bitterness. That’s exactly what happened in this case.

Shahulhameed – an Indian citizen – was working for GlobalSource IT, contracted by the vehicle manufacturer to maintain the computer systems of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc, AutoNews reports.

Apparently, on the night of August 23, the date when he was fired, the suspect logged on to the company’s systems for more than 6 hours. During this time, he copied all sorts of information, including some heavily guarded trade secrets. 

Furthermore, he allegedly altered a number of 13 applications present on the website.

According to the complaint filed by Toyota in the U.S. District Court in Lexington, Kentucky, the organization and its suppliers would suffer serious consequences if the information accessed by the suspect were to land in the competition’s yard.

Toyota representatives are still trying to assess the full extent of this incident and before the investigation is concluded, they prefer not to speculate. On the other hand, they don’t believe that any of the information possibly stolen by the man has been disseminated. 

The court documents also revealed the fact that Shahulhameed was preparing to head back to India prior to the incident, but he agreed not to leave the country during the next 14 days.


Source: softpedia @EduardKovacs