Cox Automotive spots ‘suspicious activity’ connected to VinSolutions that was ‘quickly contained’

Online speculation surfaced over the weekend on social media and elsewhere that fraudsters from the Dark Web hacked into VinSolutions, potential extracting thousands of consumers’ information from the CRM used by about 7,000 dealerships.

Cox Automotive on Monday acknowledged “suspicious activity” that was “quickly contained” within VinSolutions. Here is the company’s entire statement about the matter that was sent to Auto Remarketing early on Monday afternoon:

“We recently detected suspicious activity that was limited to VinSolutions and did not affect other Cox Automotive solutions or platforms. The activity was quickly contained, did not involve any encrypting malware, and there was no disruption to our customers’ ability to use VinSolutions. Customers can continue to engage with all Cox Automotive solutions as they normally would. We are working diligently with outside cyber experts to determine the nature and scope of any data that was involved. Based on our investigation so far, we believe this affected a limited subset of our VinSolutions dealers and will notify any affected parties directly and in line with our obligations. Our top priority is supporting our dealers’ businesses and preserving the trust we’ve earned from them for decades.”

All sorts of fraudulent activities are happening nowadays, including the cloning dealership website and more.

Auto Remarketing recently hosted a free webinar with two prominent fraud-prevention experts — Frank McKenna and Matt Vega of Pointe Predictive — who gave an updated and shared best practices to keep your businesses protected.

Watch the free session in the window below.