Odyssey with the authorities

Car registration: no one responsible for data leak

A one-off glitch or a major data leak? In any case, 57-year-old Harald S. from Eisenstadt was astonished when a completely different vehicle suddenly appeared in the app when he tried to register his car using a new electronic registration certificate.

"The Citroën belongs to a long-time acquaintance with whom I haven't had any contact for a long time," says the 57-year-old from Eisenstadt, describing his astonishing experience with the recently introduced electronic registration certificate. Instead of his own car, an ancient Citroën suddenly appeared in the widely publicized installation app, which has long since been deregistered and has presumably been scrapped for a small eternity on earth.

Affected person is sent around in circles
So Harald S. turned to the Federal Accounting Center. This referred him to the Ministry of Finance in Vienna, stating that it was merely a data processor. There, in turn, the officer contacted by telephone saw neither the need nor the will to take action - also for data protection reasons. "I didn't hear anything for weeks at first," complains S.

Then, out of the blue, a statement arrived from the Federal Computing Center. The content of the letter left S. even more perplexed than at the start of his odyssey with the authorities: "I am extremely confused. In an official and highly official letter that I received on Friday, these special Viennese experts refer me to authorities such as the provincial police directorate, municipal authorities and finally back to the Ministry of Transport!"

Concern about data
How he should proceed now remains a big mystery to the Burgenlander. His biggest concern is that his car registration data and that of hundreds of other Austrians has been handled in a similarly careless manner. The central question of the man sent to the office: "How much data on cars that have long since been deregistered is still floating around out there? And how many vehicles cannot be registered with the respective district authorities via the much-vaunted app?" In any case, he would have been sent around in circles...

"Progress in digitalization also makes it necessary for the authorities to develop new applications. In addition to user convenience, it is important to always ensure that computer security and data protection are adequately guaranteed. Extensive tests must be carried out before commissioning to ensure that incorrect data is not processed or that the systems cannot be attacked from outside! The case described above illustrates the great sensitivity that exists in the population in this regard," says Krone cyber security expert Dr. Cornelius Granig. This and possibly other cases must be clarified quickly.