Volkswagen car-location data-exposure incident: Difference between revisions

{{OngoingEvent}}

|ArticleType=Product

|Type=Privacy, Surveillance

|Description=Volkswagen suffered a large databreach, revealing customer's location data, battery statistics, and sensitive personal information.

In 2024, Volkswagen experienced a data-security incident involving customer vehicle information stored on [[Amazon Web Services]] (AWS). The incident occurred when Volkswagen's implementation of [[CARIAD]], a system used for storing terabytes of customer data, was discovered to have publicly accessible storage instances, because of a misconfiguration<ref name=":0">[https://cybersecuritynews.com/volkswagen-data-breach/]"Volkswagen Data Breach: 800,000 Electric Car Owners’ Data Leaked" written by Guru Baran (co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security). [https://web.archive.org/web/20260330070402/https://cybersecuritynews.com/volkswagen-data-breach/ Archived] from the original on December 28, 2024. Retrieved on January 15, 2025.</ref>.

[[File:Volkswagen geo-location pie chart.png|alt=Pie chart showing the total cars affected including the severity of each(whether its location was exposed down to a radius of 10cm or 10km) and breakdown by brand|thumb|Pie chart showing the total cars affected and breakdown by brand]]

The core issue stemmed from a misconfiguration in Volkswagen's AWS storage implementation, which left customer data publicly accessible without proper authentication or access restrictions<ref name=":0" />. This exposed sensitive information about vehicle locations, EV-battery statistics and sensitive customer information. The incident not only breached customer trust, but Volkswagen's own [[Terms of Service]].

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has previously expressed concerns about automotive data security. Following the 2020 Massachusetts Right to Repair initiative, NHTSA official Carrie Gules issued a letter addressing potential security vulnerabilities in vehicle data systems.<ref>https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/vehicle_cybersecurity_best_practices_01072021.pdf. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210720041841/https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/vehicle_cybersecurity_best_practices_01072021.pdf Archived] from the original on July 20, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2025.</ref><!-- I couldn't find any specific letter that was referenced here, although there have been some sources saying that the NHTSA has taken part in Massachusetts Right to Repair regulations. -->