Autovista Blames Ransomware for Service Disruption
Autovista Blames Ransomware for Service Disruption 🚗🔒
Autovista has confirmed that it has called in outside support to help clean up a ransomware infection currently affecting systems in Europe and Australia. The automotive data and analytics company issued a public statement on Wednesday confirming the incident and stated that it’s working to contain the attack.
London-headquartered Autovista offers a broad suite of applications to customers, all built around its data offerings. Unfortunately, these applications are experiencing disruptions. These include tools that help automotive companies monitor the residual values of their assets and trends that affect them, as well as data-driven total cost of ownership (TCO) tools.
Autovista stated that its top priority is to securely restore impacted applications, although it does not have a firm timeline on this yet. Given the early-stage nature of the attack, the company is still unaware of how the criminals were able to breach its systems, but third-party experts are working to understand the root cause. As of now, no established ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the company.
Customers are advised to monitor the company’s website for further updates, as their usual contacts might be unreachable due to email access being pulled for some staff. In its advisory, Autovista provided an email address belonging to the wider Autovista Group for customers who urgently need to contact the company directly.
JD Power acquired Autovista Group in 2024, whose brands include Eurotax, Glass’s, Rødboka, and Schwacke, which provide similar vehicle valuation, specification, and repair-data services in different markets. All the brands’ homepages have links to the same security advisory hosted on Autovista’s website.
Additionally, anonymous sources have informed The Register that their organizations advised staff to block emails from all Autovista Group companies, sanitize any files to remove links, and delete any executables associated with them.