Kia Motors America has denied it was hit with a ransomware attack following reports that the auto company was struck by DoppelPaymer ransomware.
News of a ransomware attack began to circulate after Kia experienced a nationwide IT shortage earlier this week. The outage affected Kia's mobile UVO Link apps, phone services, payment systems, owner portal, and internal websites used by dealerships, BleepingComputer reported. The publication shared an image of the ransom note, which demanded $20 million from Kia.
Kia issued a statement on Thursday: "We are aware of online speculation that Kia is subject to a ransomware attack. At this time, and based on the best and most current information, we can confirm that we have no evidence that Kia or any Kia data is subject to a ransomware attack."
Kia also confirmed its UVO app and owner's portal are back up and running, and it anticipates the remaining customer-facing systems that are affected will come back online within the next 24 to 48 hours.
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