Avis car rental reports data breach impacting customers

American car rental giant Avis has disclosed a data breach that affected some of its customers' personal information. The breach occurred when unknown attackers gained unauthorized access to one of Avis's business applications.

The unauthorized access took place between August 3 and August 6, 2024. The breach was discovered by Avis on August 5, 2024. After discovering the breach, Avis took steps to terminate the unauthorized access and initiated an investigation with external cybersecurity experts.

The company notified relevant authorities and impacted customers, including filings with California's Office of the Attorney General and South Carolina's Department of Consumer Affairs.

The stolen information includes customers' names and potentially other sensitive data. The specific types of other sensitive information and the number of impacted customers have not been disclosed.

Update - as of 9th of September, it's reported that the incident exposed 300,000 customers.

Avis is warning affected customers and advising them to monitor their credit history and account statements for any unauthorized activities and is providing affected customers with a complimentary one-year membership to Equifax's credit monitoring service.