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Volkswagen Leak Exposed Precise Location Data on Thousands of Vehicles Across Europe for Months
A serious security breach has been uncovered at Volkswagen’s troubled automotive software unit Cariad, where terabytes of customer data were left exposed to the internet for months. According to reports from Der Spiegel and security researchers who presented their findings at the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg, Germany, around 800,000 electric vehicles from brands such as Audi, Seat, Skoda, and Volkswagen were affected by this massive leak.
The alarming revelation is that over half of these vehicles, approximately 460,000 cars, had their precise location data exposed. The researchers claimed that the accuracy of this location information was astonishingly specific, with some coordinates pinpointed to just a few centimeters. This potentially catastrophic breach has left thousands of customers’ personal privacy at risk.
The affected countries include Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, among others. This egregious data exposure highlights the severity of Cariad’s struggles in recent years, plagued by delays to major software launches and a restructuring process that resulted in hundreds of job losses.
While Cariad has since addressed the issue by fixing the bug responsible for this leak, it is unclear whether any unauthorized parties accessed this sensitive information. The company claims to have found no evidence of any external exploitation, but the possibility cannot be entirely ruled out.
This breach serves as a stark reminder of the importance of cybersecurity in today’s digital landscape and underscores the need for robust data protection measures.
Source: techcrunch.com
