Hackers Stole Credit Card, Driver's License Info in Hertz Data Breach

If you’ve used Hertz car rental before, the company has confirmed that user data was stolen in a 2024 data breach at a partner company.

Hertz partners with file-transfer platform Cleo, which was impacted by a software vulnerability between October and December 2024. Attacks in December saw Cleo struggle to patch a software vulnerability that may have impacted its 4,000 commercial customers.

This Hertz data breach was first reported in early February; the company investigated and issued a full report on the incident on April 2. Now, the company is informing customers around the globe that they may be impacted.

Hertz says various types of customer data are involved, including users’ names, contact information, dates of birth, driver’s license information, and credit card info. Some information related to worker’s compensation claims is also included.

Some people may have also had their Social Security numbers and passport information exposed. Hertz says this data only impacts “a very small number of individuals,” but the company isn’t answering questions about how many customers are impacted by this or the overall breach.

In a statement, a spokesperson tells us, “At Hertz, we take the privacy and security of personal information seriously. This vendor event involves Cleo, a file transfer platform used by Hertz for limited purposes. Importantly, to date, our forensic investigation has found no evidence that Hertz’s own network was affected by this event. However, among many other companies affected by this event, we have confirmed that Hertz data was acquired by an unauthorized third party that we understand exploited zero-day vulnerabilities within Cleo’s platform in October 2024 and December 2024.”

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As noted by The Verge, different versions of the Hertz notice are visible in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and the European Union, confirming this is a global issue. At the time of writing, Hertz has said it’s not aware of any of the data being used for fraudulent purposes.

If you’re a Hertz customer who believes you may be impacted, you can contact Hertz at (866) 408-8964, which is open on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central Time.

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