Nissan says Japanese website altered, posed virus risk

A pedestrian and cars are reflected in a Nissan Motor logo at the company's dealership in Tokyo July 28, 2014. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

TOKYO (Reuters) - A page on Nissan Motor Co's Japanese website had been altered for nearly two months before being remedied and users that accessed it may have downloaded files infected with viruses, the Japanese automaker said on Tuesday. Users opening the page for calculating vehicles trade-in value were automatically sent to a non-Nissan website from which they may have downloaded virus files had they clicked on anything, spokesman Chris Keeffe said. Around 47,800 users accessed the altered page between June 30 and August 30, he said. Nissan has not confirmed if any personal information was leaked and an internet security firm is investigating, the company said in a statement. "We deeply apologize for causing troubles and concerns," it said, asking users to check whether their computers are infected with viruses. It was not immediately clear who had altered the website. Earlier this week, Sony Corp's PlayStation network had suffered a cyber attack, which overwhelmed the system with traffic. (Reporting by Maki Shiraki and Yoko Kubota; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Simon Cameron-Moore)