Eagers Automotive (ASX:APE) shares were in the green at lunchtime, up 1.31 per cent, even after detailing that a cyber attack has seen undisclosed materials from its IT systems published online.
The cyber incident was first brought to the market’s attention in late December of 2023 – right before New Year’s Eve, on the 29th – when Eagers outlined the issue.
“The company has experienced a cyber incident resulting in an outage that is disrupting parts of the company’s operations across Australia and New Zealand,” the company wrote at the time.
In that announcement, the company noted that “the majority of our dealerships remain open” but that the “operational impact of the outage is varied across our regions”.
Worth noting: Eagers only fessed up to having been hit with an attack at all when an automotive industry publication, GoAutoNews, published the story.
That story was first published on December 27.
A day later, Eagers told the market: “On 27 December 2023, Eagers entered into trading halt in relation to a cyber incident of which it had just become aware.”
Now, in mid-February, the company has reported that undisclosed materials from Eagers’ “IT environment” has been published online.
Between the lines, Eagers hinted at being made aware of this by “a third party” – implying, perhaps, the company finds itself in the unfortunate position of dealing with ransomware, or, some kind of other threat.
It is not clear what has been posted online.
However, Eagers has said it will “update all relevant stakeholders as further information becomes available.”
Trying to deduce the story from what little information we have: it’s likely the “stakeholders” are either customers or, manufacturers with which Eagers has franchise agreements.
The saga echoes that of Medibank’s (ASX:MPL) in relatively recent history, which was hit by organised cybercriminals.
That saga pushed down Medibank’s share price significantly, though, not for long – and largely because the insurer was viewed as having decided first not to tell the public.
With Eager’s shares in the green today, perhaps it does pay to be honest.
However, Medibank shares didn’t stay down for too long, either.