Recently, Avis Car Rental experienced a significant data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 300,000 customers. According to Avis, the breach was detected after an unauthorized third party accessed one of the company’s business applications between August 3 and August 6, 2024. The attackers managed to steal sensitive data, including customer names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, payment card information, and even driver's license numbers.
Avis quickly responded by terminating the intrusion and launching an investigation with external cybersecurity experts. However, this incident has raised concerns about the company's data security measures.
Avis has notified affected customers and offered them free credit and identity monitoring services for one year to help protect against potential identity theft and fraud. If you are one of these customers, it is advised to take advantage of this service. Keep in mind that it won’t keep someone from using your information to open credit accounts, for example, but the service will alert you when someone tries. This will give you an opportunity to react and stop it.
To keep your information from being used to open credit accounts, such as auto loans, consider putting a freeze on your credit reports. This can now be done at no charge and if you need to unfreeze them for some reason, you can easily do so…at no charge.
Even with credit monitoring service and credit freezes, customers are still advised to remain vigilant, regularly monitor their accounts, and be cautious of potential phishing attacks, as the stolen data could be used for malicious purposes. Remember to check credit reports at least once a year and even better, get one from each of the three agencies every four months.
In response to this breach, Avis has implemented additional security safeguards across its systems and is reviewing its cybersecurity practices to prevent future breaches. While no ransomware appears to have been involved, the incident highlights the ongoing challenges companies face in securing large volumes of customer data from persistent cyber threats.
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