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BUSINESS

Hackers steal research data from Sweden’s Volvo Cars

Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars said Friday that hackers had stolen research and development data from its systems in a cyberattack.

Finished cars wait to be transported at Swedish auto maker Volvo Cars's Torslanda production plant in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Finished cars wait to be transported at Swedish auto maker Volvo Cars's Torslanda production plant in Gothenburg, Sweden. Investigations into the cyberattack so far show that the firm's R&D data, not customer data, has been affected. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

The company, owned by China’s Geely, “has become aware that one of its file repositories has been illegally accessed by a third party,” it said.

“Investigations so far confirm that a limited amount of the company’s R&D property has been stolen during the intrusion,” Volvo added.

It warned that “there may be an impact on the company’s operation” from the hack, sending its stock falling 3.5 percent in Stockholm, to 72.44 kronor ($8.00, 7.06 euros).

But the company added there was likely no “impact on the safety or security of its customers’ cars or their personal data”.

Gothenburg-based Volvo is currently pumping cash into electrifying its entire range by 2030.

A spokesman told AFP that the company had not been hit by ransomware and remained in full control of its data.

He added that a “third party” had contacted Volvo “recently” about the information theft, without giving any details about the exchange.

Volvo Cars separated from truck manufacturer Volvo Group in 1999, before being bought by Geely in 2010.

Member comments

  1. If Geely own Volvo then the headline should read “Hackers steal research data from China’s Volvo Cars. You can’t sell your car and then when you see it in the street say “That’s my car”..

    1. I politely request that you proofread and correct this otherwise dumb comment because it’s not understandable.

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POLITICS

‘A group of Nazis’: Masked men attack Swedish anti-fascism meeting

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, Swedish police and participants said.

'A group of Nazis': Masked men attack Swedish anti-fascism meeting

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Gubbängen theatre in a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, adding that it had no information about the injuries suffered.

According to the Expo anti-racism magazine, which had been invited to give a presentation at the event, “a group of Nazis” came into the theatre foyer just before the event was to begin and threw smoke bombs into the hall.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence… (and) vandalised the premises before throwing a type of smoke bomb that filled the entrance hall with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

“It’s terrible that a meeting organised by the left-wing party has been attacked,” said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, quoted by the TT news agency.

“This type of hateful behaviour has no place in our free and open society,” he said, adding that he had contacted the party’s leader to express his “deepest support”.

All of Sweden’s political parties denounced the assault as an “attack on democracy”, TT said.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar told public broadcaster SVT that an “open event, for equality among individuals” was “violently attacked by those who seemed to be Nazis”.

She also called on “all political forces” to fight the “far right that threatens our democracy”.

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