In about 466,000 of the 800,000 cases, the location data is so precise that it can be used to map each owner’s agenda.
Confidential information about 800 thousand owners of Volkswagen electric cars, including GPS coordinates and battery charge level, has become publicly available. The leak made it possible to determine the daily activities of car owners, including politicians, businessmen and security officials. Der Spiegel reported it.
The leak made it possible to determine the daily activities of the owners, including politicians, businessmen and security officials.
The bug has since been fixed, but the incident highlights the need to improve cybersecurity in the automotive industry.
In about 466,000 of the 800,000 cases, the location data is so precise that it can be used to map each owner’s agenda. Several terabytes of data belonging to thousands of electric car owners are not secured in Amazon’s cloud storage. The leak affected cars from the Volkswagen, Seat, Audi and Skoda brands.
The problem was discovered by an anonymous whistleblower who used publicly available software to expose confidential information. Most of the victims were drivers from Germany.
The leak was found to have originated from Volkswagen subsidiary software company Cariad. Cariad’s technical team acted quickly to block unauthorized access to customer data.
Volkswagen assured customers that no sensitive information such as passwords or payment details were exposed in the hack. However, concerns remain about how this data could be used by criminals, scammers, blackmailers or stalkers.
Earlier, nearly 70,000 Volkswagen workers went on strike over the company’s large-scale layoff plans.
Volkswagen has abandoned labor agreements that guaranteed the preservation of jobs until 2029.
Source: korrespondent
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