Volkswagen manager fired after raising cyber security concerns
A senior member of staff at Volkswagen (VW) was reportedly dismissed after raising concerns about the company’s payments arm.
In September 2021 a manager raised the alarm that VW’s payments arm, which will soon be majority-owned by JP Morgan, was vulnerable to cyber security attacks, the FT first reported. The staff member, who warned bosses that VW could face regulatory action if the issue was not resolved, was fired a month later.
“The employee was terminated due to fundamental differences in the way we work together,” a spokesperson for VW told the FT, claiming that the information provided by the staff member turned out to be “irrelevant.”
The accusations come after VW repeatedly stressed that it is fostering an open culture in which employees feel safe to come forwards about concerns following the emissions testing scandal. In 2015, the carmaker admitted to fitting 11m cars with a device which let them cheat emissions tests.
As part of internal reforms, the company established a Together4Integrity scheme which is designed to ensure wrongdoing is reported.
In early September, JP Morgan announced it would buy a 75 per cent stake in Volkswagen Payments SA, which builds mobile payment applications, enables the payment of vehicle related expenses and allows customers to pay for upgrades and services from Volkswagen.
Later that month, the employee raised concerns about a possible fraud event according to documents seen by the FT.
“We need to have some kill switches to limit the damage to… these sorts of attacks,” the employee wrote, warning that more hacking attempts could be made.
VW reportedly hired an external law firm to look into the employees concerns.