What happened
Japanese automaker Nissan confirmed that personal information of about 21,000 customers was exposed due to a data breach at Red Hat, its third‑party technology provider. Hackers gained unauthorized access to a GitLab instance managed by Red Hat Consulting, a development environment used on a project for Nissan’s customer management system. The compromised data includes customer names, addresses, phone numbers, partial email addresses, and sales activity information. No financial information, such as credit card data, was involved, and there’s currently no evidence that the stolen data has been used maliciously.
Who is affected
The breach affects approximately 21,000 Nissan customers associated with Nissan Fukuoka Sales Co., Ltd., a regional dealership in Japan. Individuals whose information was part of the repository are at increased risk of phishing and social engineering because their contact details were exposed through the compromised Red Hat GitLab server.
Why CISOs should care
This incident highlights supply chain and third‑party risk, demonstrating how a breach at a software provider like Red Hat can extend into customer data exposure for large enterprises like Nissan. Development and collaboration environments such as GitLab often contain sensitive information that can be exploited if not adequately secured. It underlines the need for robust vendor risk management, continuous monitoring of third‑party systems, and stronger data‑protection controls across integrated ecosystems.
3 practical actions
- Enhance Third‑Party Risk Assessment: Strengthen security due diligence for suppliers and require regular independent audits and security attestations for environments that handle sensitive data.
- Segment & Harden Dev Environments: Apply strict network segmentation, enforce multi‑factor authentication (MFA), and limit access to DevOps platforms such as GitLab to only essential users and roles.
- Implement Continuous Monitoring: Deploy continuous monitoring and logging for third‑party systems, with automated alerts for anomalous activity and integration into your enterprise SIEM/XDR to spot potential breaches early.