Espionage: VW makes serious accusations against China

Between 2010 and 2015, VW was the victim of a prolonged hacker attack in which valuable company data was stolen. A team of journalists has now uncovered that China could possibly be the mastermind.

Hacker attacks on VW between 2010 and 2015

It is no longer just state institutions that fall victim to cyber attacks. Companies are also increasingly being targeted by criminals. As they rely more and more on networking, it is possible for people to access data and steal important documents even if they are thousands of kilometers away. This was apparently also the case at VW, as journalists from ZDF and Der Spiegel have now discovered.

According to the Spiegel report, Chinese hackers stole information from VW between 2010 and 2015. The attackers infiltrated the car manufacturer’s systems several times. When analyzing the procedure, it becomes clear that the attackers were by no means amateurs. According to VW itself, they attacked the car manufacturer in several waves.

In the beginning, the hackers probably only investigated the company’s network structures. In doing so, they searched for possible security gaps that could make it possible to penetrate the system. The attackers then stole the first data from 2011 onwards. The attacks are said to have taken place both at the VW plant in Mexico and at the main plant in Wolfsburg.

China as a possible mastermind

According to VW, the cyber criminals are said to have hacked around 19,000 files. The focus was clearly on technical developments. The attackers not only collected information on achievements in the field of transmission technology. The attackers also clearly had the further development of the classic petrol combustion engine and combustion alternatives such as electric engines in their sights.

Naturally, investigations were quickly launched. And these are now apparently leading to China. VW does not yet want to commit itself in terms of the presumption of innocence. However, the Group speaks quite clearly when it says that an attack from China is considered “most likely”. This assumption is based, among other things, on IP addresses from the capital Beijing. Meanwhile, the attack is not really new for VW. In fact, the Group already became aware of it in 2014.

Ten years have passed since then and VW has invested several million euros in improving its IT security. But what consequences could the new findings have? One thing is certain: although there is still no hard evidence, the circumstantial evidence seems overwhelming. Meanwhile, China stresses that the allegations are “rumors and falsehoods”.