Leak exposes the location of 800,000 Volkswagen electric vehicle owners (Unsplash – Melvin)
A data leak at Volkswagen‘s software subsidiary, Cariad, exposed personal information, including location data, of approximately 800,000 electric vehicle owners from the Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, and Skoda brands.
For about 460,000 vehicles, the data was detailed, showing locations where the cars were turned on and off. The issue was discovered by a whistleblower who alerted the Chaos Computer Club and the newspaper “Der Spiegel,” which confirmed the breach by voluntarily tracking the cars of two German politicians.
The breach, caused by improper data storage in an unsecured, unencrypted Amazon cloud, made access relatively easy, even for those with limited technical knowledge. However, there is no evidence that this data was used maliciously. Cariad fixed the issue after being notified, stating that vehicle owners do not need to take any additional measures to protect their information.
This incident is another embarrassment for Volkswagen, which already faced the Dieselgate scandal in 2015. Although the company claims that accessing the data required a high level of expertise, the prolonged exposure and ease of access further damage its reputation, at a time when sales of its electric vehicles are already struggling.
Source: Mashable | Photo: Unsplash | This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team
