Thousands Exposed After Data Breach of Europe's Largest Parking App

A cyberattack on Europe's largest parking application operator, EasyPark, has reportedly left users' data accessed by hackers. The operator has allegedly applied measures to stop the incident immediately, as reported by Interesting Engineering.

The Guardian states that EasyPark Group, which owns brands such as RingGo and ParkMobile, claimed that while customer names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and portions of credit card information were stolen, parking data was not affected in the cyber-attack.

Despite such information being stolen and accessed by hackers, the company described the exposed details as "non-sensitive" as no combination could be used for payments. Still, the firm advised customers to be wary of phishing attempts.

The business did not indicate how many users were affected, just that 950 RingGo users in the UK were affected. According to a representative, the bulk of those impacted are EasyPark members in Europe, implying that the data of thousands of consumers has been hacked.

The firm also reportedly clarified that its ParkMobile app, which has 50 million users in the United States, is unaffected by the reported data breach.

EasyPark's Efforts

Hackread adds to the story, stating that the firm has notified regulatory authorities, including the EU's privacy authority, Sweden's Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, and the Swiss data regulator, of the cyber assault.

EasyPark Group stated that it detected the compromise on December 10 and began notifying all impacted clients a few days later. The corporation reportedly maintained, however, that it had received no ransom requests and had no knowledge of the stolen material being utilized or released.

EasyPark Group stressed its commitment to notifying and aiding affected consumers through various methods, including push alerts, emails, and SMS. The business asked consumers to utilize the app to check their status and expressed remorse for the incident, promising continued efforts to recover user confidence.

However, The report adds that this is not the first time EasyPark's application has been breached.

Its US-focused app, ParkMobile App, has also previously been compromised, Wherein Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were among the high-profile individuals whose information was compromised in a 2021 incident.

Weakness in its third-party software reportedly prompted the data breach in March 2021, during which hackers leaked over 21 million client credentials online.

EasyPark, A Giant in Centralized Parking Systems

EasyPark is reportedly owned by the private equity groups Vitruvian Partners and Verdane, which purchased the company from BMW and Daimler in 2021.

Its EasyPark, ParkMobile, RingGo, and Park-line applications are available in over 4,000 cities across 23 countries, including the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the majority of Western European nations such as Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Interesting Engineering states that as the investigation continues, the cybersecurity intrusion shows the flaws in centralized parking systems. It emphasizes the importance of strong safeguards for user data in an increasingly digital society.