The Cariad division of Volkswagen Group accidentally left terabytes of data about 800,000 Audi, Seat, Skoda, and Volkswagen electric vehicles publicly accessible online for several months, as reported by Der Spiegel.
German researchers discussed this during a presentation at the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg. The published data also included precise coordinates for about 460,000 vehicles.
According to researchers, some locations were pinpointed with accuracy down to a few centimeters. Most of the cars whose coordinates were exposed were located in Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.
Cariad has since fixed the error responsible for the data breach and stated that there is no evidence suggesting anyone other than security researchers accessed the information.
Additionally, Cariad is currently facing difficult times, having delayed the release of key software products and recently undergoing restructuring, resulting in the reduction of hundreds of employees.