Toyota accuses ex contractor of hacking, stealing trade secrets

A former contractor of Toyota’s U.S.-based manufacturing company has been accused of hacking into the toyotasupplier.com website, of downloading sensitive proprietary information from it, of unauthorized accessing of the Toyota computer system, and of sabotaging the company’s internal software.

According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Lexington, Kentucky, Ibrahimshah Shahulhameed worked for GlobalSource IT and has been contracted to maintain and manage the manufacturing company’s computer systems.

After having been dismissed on August 23, he allegedly logged into the Toyota computer system later that night and proceeded copying internal documents that contained trade secrets. It is unclear whether he used his own login credentials that haven’t yet been revoked or if he found another way to get in.

He also stands accused of having hacked into Toyota’s secure Web portal for suppliers and exfiltrating sensitive information from it, then modifying 13 software applications on it, Automotive News reports.

Toyota claims that if the stolen information is made public, the company and its suppliers would suffer “immediate and irreparable damage.”

It is still unknown whether Shahulhameed managed to pass the stolen information to third parties, but in the meantime Toyota has asked – and has been granted – a restraining order that prohibits Shahulhameed from doing so and from leaving the United States.