So far in 2019, I’ve seen a variety of data breaches come across my desk as clients have fallen victim to a variety of scams. This week, I read another good blog about another unlikely source of personal information that could be vulnerable to hackers: the computers in our cars. John Simek’s post this week was a good reminder of all the dangers that can be out there to our personal privacy. It seems that a damaged Tesla’s internal computer revealed all kinds of personal information about the owner.Did You Erase All Your Info From Your Car?
The blog post focused on something that many of us wouldn’t think about: our cars. Think about all the personal information that could be contained in your dashboard:
- Your Home Address
- Contacts from Your Cell Phone
- Calendar Entries
- Text Messages
- Your Phone Call History
- Locations You Frequent
If you recently sold your car or turned it in at the end of the lease, did you remember to delete all this information? When we get rid of our home computers and laptops, one of the first steps we often take is to wipe the hard drive clean. Make sure to remove all of our information. There are numerous software programs out there to help us clean off the computer.
But what about our car computers? Is there even software out there to help us do that? Unfortunately, hackers and those trying to get our personal data often think outside the box. Where we don’t think to remove the data, they are actively finding ways to get to it.
Unfortunately, in 2019, the threats to our personal data are growing and coming from a variety of places we would never suspect.
