Harley-Davidson has been linked to a hack by cyber criminals over the Christmas period, with RedHotCyber (RHC) reporting that more than 66,000 customer records may have been compromised.
The hack is being attributed to the 888 group, which has allegedly posted a sample of stolen data within an online forum. RHC goes on to claim that the contents of the sample show customer data that could only have been gathered from the company’s own IT infrastructure or from a third-party vendor.
The group allegedly behind the hack is well known in the cyber community and has been linked to a number of high-profile data breaches in years gone by. In September 2024, 888 was linked to a hack on the tech giant Oracle, exposing sensitive personal and professional information of over 4,000 employees to interested parties. It has also been behind a hack that gained the contact details of 33,000 current and former employees of IT giant Accenture.
While both of those previous breaches exposed the personal data of employees, which is obviously a very big deal, the hack on Harley seems even more significant, both because of the nature of data being stolen (being that of customers and not employees), and because of its size.
The actual data that is reported to have been compromised is as yet unknown, in fact, it’s not even been confirmed that the theft of the data has even taken place by Harley-Davidson. RHC does state that an attack of this kind could uncover names and addresses, as well as potentially information relating to the customer’s bike or the product they purchased. That final point is an important one, as Harley is more than a bike and apparel maker. It also includes financial services within its umbrella, which could mean sensitive financial details of customers could also be compromised.
The attack could also have financial implications on Harley-Davidson should data protection rules be found to be broken.
