Volkswagen leak exposed location data for 800,000 electric cars

For months, the location information of about 800,000 Volkswagen electric vehicles was available online due to a data leak, according to a report from the German magazine The mirror. The leak was given by software running in Volkswagen vehicles and could have allowed a bad actor to track a driver’s exact movements. as noted by Electrek.

A previously notified whistleblower The mirror and European hacker association Chaos Computer Club of the vulnerability, which also affects EVs from Volkswagen’s car brands on a global scale, including Audi, Seat and Skoda.

The mirror found that Cariad, the Volkswagen subsidiary behind the automaker’s software, allowed an attacker to find and access driver data stored in Amazon’s cloud storage service. The data, which “may be linked to drivers’ names and contact details”, includes details about when the EVs were switched on and off, along with e-mails, phone numbers and addresses the drivers in some cases.

It includes the “precise” locations of approximately 460,000 vehicles, such as The mirror it says the data was “accurate to ten centimeters” for Volkswagen and Seats vehicles, and to within 10 km (~6 miles) for Audi and Skoda models.

Cariad has since addressed the issue, saying The mirror Customers do not need to take any action as no sensitive information such as passwords or payment details is affected. The Virgin reached out to Cariad and Volkswagen with requests for comment, but they did not immediately respond.