The arrival of connected cars poses unprecedented problems of ethics and respect for private life. While modern automobiles send a lot of information relating to their GPS position, the behavior of their drivers or more generally, their car usage habits, the risks associated with these new on-board technologies regularly cause concern. For example, when in the United States, General Motors sold private data on its customers to third-party companies specializing in insurance.
At Volkswagen, fortunately, we have not resorted to such practices. But as German journalists from Der Spiegel reveal, a security breach allowed hackers to obtain potentially very sensitive private data on no less than 800,000 of the group’s electric vehicles and their owners, in Germany but also in the rest of Europe (and potentially other countries).
Hackers could know where you were going
Due to an error made last summer by the Volkswagen department responsible for the software and other connected interfaces of its cars (Cariad), it was in fact possible for third parties to connect to an Amazon online server where a lot of information was stored automatically collected on electric cars from Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi brands. Although Seat no longer sells electric cars since the end of production of the small Mii, Der Spiegel also lists this brand among the brands concerned and specifies that for 460,000 vehicles, precise geolocation data could be consulted by malicious individuals.
Der Spiegel journalists explain that the hackers could have blackmail or reveal very embarrassing information about affected customerstheir names and addresses being associated with the account of each of these electric cars. Political figures were also among these names and the journalists gave the example of “large parking lot of the Artemis brothel in Berlin” whose visit could have been broadcast on the internet or used to blackmail married clients.
The hackers who discovered this breach, members of the Chaos Computer Club which regularly acts as whistleblower, immediately contacted Volkswagen and Cariad to let them know. According to Der Spieger, they immediately responded by putting an end to this problem. But if you have gone to an unspeakable place with your Skoda Enyaq or your Volkswagen ID.3 beware: someone with bad intentions may know it.
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