The Hidden Danger Inside Your Vehicle

While car manufacturers offer basic “delete” functions, the truth is these tools rarely eliminate data. Instead, personal information lingers within the vehicle’s memory, waiting to be exploited by malicious actors for tracking, identity theft, or other types of cybercrime.

Criminals who gain access to personal data can impersonate individuals, open fraudulent accounts, or take out loans in their names. Here are a few examples of frequent, rapidly growing attacks:

1. Vehicle-Enabled Stalking:
   By tracking a car’s GPS history or current location, malicious actors could follow a victim’s daily routines, knowing exactly where they live, work, and shop. This can facilitate physical stalking, burglary, or harassment. There are more than 3.5 million stalking victims in the US annually. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men experience stalking at some point in their lives.

2. Unauthorized Purchases and Fraud:
   Stored credit card details could be used to make fraudulent online purchases, causing financial loss and damage to the victim’s credit standing. Americans lost $10 billion to fraudsters in 2023. More than 52 million Americans experienced fraudulent charges on their credit or debit cards in 2023, with unauthorized purchases exceeding $5 billion.

3. Remote Vehicle Control Attacks:
   In extreme cases, hackers may exploit vulnerabilities in a vehicle’s onboard systems to manipulate car functions—from unlocking doors and starting the engine to tampering with brakes or steering—threatening both the driver’s safety and property.

4. Blackmail and Extortion:
   Personal data found in a car’s systems might include private messages, calendar events, or personal notes. Criminals could use this information to blackmail victims or extort money by threatening to reveal sensitive details publicly. In 2023, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly one million complaints from the American public, with potential losses exceeding twelve billion dollars. This represents a nearly 10% increase in complaints received and a 22% increase in losses suffered compared to 2022.

5. Home Invasion or Burglary:
   Data collected by vehicles includes home address details, travel patterns, garage door codes and many other pattern of life details. Attackers can plan break-ins when they know the owner is away, leveraging both timing and access information. A home burglary occurs once every 25 seconds in the United States. Approximately 2.5 million burglaries occur annually in the US, with 66% considered home invasions.