People visit the booth of Chinese electric automaker NIO during the China Motor Show (Tianjin) 2022 in North China's Tianjin, November 10, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese electric vehicle startup NIO has confirmed the theft of some of its users' data, which was followed by a blackmail attempt in which $2.25 million in Bitcoins was demanded for the return of the stolen data. The company vowed to combat data theft and protect user information security, according to an announcement quoted by domestic media outlet jiemian.com in a report on Tuesday.

The announcement said the enterprise received an external email on December 11, 2022, claiming to have stolen internal data and demanding $2.25 million in Bitcoins for the return of the data.

After receiving the email, the company set up a special team to investigate and reported the incident to the relevant regulatory authorities.

After a preliminary investigation, the stolen data was found to be related to basic user information and vehicle sales information prior to August 2021.

"We apologize for the impact this incident has had on our users and promise to take responsibility for any damage caused," the announcement read.

Theft and trading of such data are illegal and criminal acts, the company said, adding that it would not bow to cyber crimes. The firm said it would work with the relevant authorities to investigate the incident and resolutely crack down on data theft.

After the incident, the company checked and strengthened the security of its network to avoid a recurrence of such an incident. "We will increase our technical strength to continuously improve the security protection capability of our information system, in order to fully protect the information security of our users," the company said in the announcement.

China on Monday released 20 measures to build basic systems for data, vowing to improve regulations to ensure data security. Experts noted that the 20 measures are meant to reduce potential data security risks and hidden dangers, such as data information leakage and illegal data utilization.

Global Time