Phoenix-based U-Haul International Inc., a provider of self-storage, truck and trailer rentals, and other moving-related services, notified customers last week that the company experienced a data breach between Nov. 5, 2021 and April 5, 2022. Hackers gained access to customer names, driver’s license information and state identification numbers through a customer-contract search tool, though no credit card information was compromised, according to the announcement. As many as 2.2 million customer records were affected, a company official told Fox Business.

U-Haul officials first became aware that hackers had compromised “two unique passwords” on July 12, according to “Storage Beat by Storable,” an industry blog. The company concluded its internal investigation last week, according to the notification letter, which was posted online by Bleeping Computer, a technology-news website.

“Upon identifying the compromised passwords, we promptly changed the passwords to prevent any further unauthorized access to the search tool and started an investigation,” the letter states. “Cybersecurity experts were engaged to identify the contracts and data that were involved. The investigation determined an unauthorized person accessed the customer-contract search tool and some customer contracts. None of our financial, payment processing or U-Haul email systems were involved; the access was limited to the customer-contract search tool.”

U-Haul indicated it was actively working to “further augment our security measures” to prevent future incidents. The company is offering affected customers one year of identity-theft monitoring services through Equifax.

Established in 1945, U-Haul operates more than 23,000 locations throughout North America. Its self-storage operations span more than 1,800 owned and managed facilities comprising more than 76 million square feet.

Sources:
Storage Beat by Storable, U-Haul Notifies Customers of Major Data Breach
Fox Business, U-Haul Says Customer Names, Driver's License Numbers Exposed in Data Breach
Bleeping Computer, U-Haul Discloses Data Breach Exposing Customer Driver Licenses