Data journalists have discovered security breaches in mobility services for the second time: now it has hit the e-scooter rental company Voi. Already in 2017, they had discovered a data leak at the bike rental Obike.
The journalists were able to see data from 460,000 users of the Swedish Kickscooterverleihers: names, mailing addresses and mobile numbers. Voi is active in four European countries and intends to lend its scooters in Germany as soon as there is a license.
Report to the Data Protection Authority
The startup reacted quickly. A spokeswoman said on a request from Gründerszene and NGIN Mobility that the data journalists had informed the company last week. The problem was solved immediately and the Swedish DPA was also informed about the incident. Voi assured that an access of this kind could not be repeated.
For the startup, the case also has a good one
“Although we do not approve BR’s methods, we are glad that the action gave us the opportunity to identify a potential problem for our users before it occurred. This was not a cyberattack. Our tests have confirmed that no other organization has accessed our systems via this route, “Voi said.
As it is further said, credit card data was not visible to the hackers. “These are never stored with us, but by our payment provider Stripe,” explains Voi. The startup assured that they had immediately increased the level of encryption and restricted access to the support system.
Ordinance for Kickscooter in work
An appropriate regulation for the approval of Kickscootern and other “small electric vehicles” is in the works and could be decided in mid-May by the Federal Council. Several companies are already in the starting blocks and plan to bring their services to the streets of German cities. In the past week, the Transport Committee of the German Bundestag had dealt with the topic. At the moment Berlin is still waiting for the green light from Brussels.
Also published on Medium.