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Volkswagen leak exposed precise location data on thousands of vehicles across Europe for months
In a shocking revelation, it has come to light that the automotive software unit Cariad, part of Volkswagen Group, left terabytes of customer data exposed online for several months. This sensitive information included precise location coordinates for over 460,000 vehicles, making it possible for anyone with access to the data to track the movements of these cars across Europe.
According to reports from Der Spiegel and cited by security researchers who presented their findings at the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg, Germany, this massive data leak affected around 800,000 electric Audi, Seat, Skoda, and Volkswagen vehicles. The exposed data not only included the general location of these vehicles but also provided pinpoint accuracy, with some coordinates accurate to just a few centimeters.
The researchers stated that most of the affected vehicles were found in Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, highlighting the potential severity of this breach. It’s essential to note that Cariad has since fixed the bug responsible for the exposure and claims that there is no evidence suggesting anyone other than the security researchers had access to the compromised data.
This recent leak adds to Cariad’s ongoing struggles as a software unit plagued by delays in major software launches and restructuring efforts, resulting in hundreds of job losses.
Source: techcrunch.com
