Norwegian soldiers participating in a military security exercise discovered that rental vehicles equipped with onboard cameras were recording sensitive tactical details, including secure access codes and the movements of military personnel.
How Did Norwegian Soldiers Discover the Onboard Camera Recordings?
During a security exercise held at Oslo airport between September 14 and 18, waiting soldiers tapped on their vehicle’s dashboard screens and uncovered video files captured by the onboard sensors, as the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv (DN) first revealed.
The files documented who was entering and exiting the automobiles, the exact routes traveled, and the entry codes required to open gates and doors leading into military facilities.
Lieutenant Colonel Per Gunnar Grosberghaugen, Norwegian Home Guard spokesperson, confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Home Guard soldiers found videos from the vehicle sensors stored in their systems.
The vehicles in question were rental cars supplied to the army by Hertz Norge—a firm indirectly owned by the Chinese auto group Geely—and included at least two Deepal brand automobiles manufactured by Changan, a Chinese state-controlled automaker, as reported by Dagens Naeringsliv.
It remains unknown whether these recordings were transferred to any third party, particularly in China, though Lieutenant Colonel Grosberghaugen acknowledged that the possibility could not be entirely ruled out.
Despite uncovering the data leaks, the military kept using the rental vehicles until the security exercise concluded because there were no alternative vehicles available, prompting soldiers to delete the videos, as reported by Dagens Naeringsliv.
Rather than implementing a sweeping ban on Chinese-manufactured vehicles—which military officials deemed disproportionate to the actual security gains—the armed forces favored site-specific security protocols, potentially restricting any vehicles outfitted with cameras and sensors regardless of their country of origin.
Hertz Norge maintained that it adheres strictly to all Norwegian and European legal standards. Our customers’ data is safe with us,
Hallvard Nerbovik, marketing and communications director for Hertz Norge, told AFP, adding that no personal rental data is shared with manufacturers or parent owners without explicit legal backing, though he did not address whether the onboard videos themselves might have been transferred. The Changan group did not respond to inquiries from AFP.
What Other Digital Vulnerabilities Concern Norwegian Authorities?
The incident at Oslo airport underscores a broader anxiety over modern connected transport and digital infrastructure, following previous warnings from transport and security agencies in Norway.
Last year, tests conducted for Oslo public transport authority Ruter demonstrated that electric buses from Chinese manufacturer Yutong could theoretically be immobilized remotely via their over-the-air software update systems—buses that Norway might rely on for emergency population evacuations.
Ruter subsequently implemented mechanisms enabling it to monitor and delay incoming signals to manage updates securely. Andreas Skjold-Lorange, an official at the Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM), described modern cars as rolling computers that collect information,
noting to AFP that authorities often lack visibility into where data travels or how it is utilized.
Beyond vehicle telemetry, the NSM warned that over-reliance on technology from a single foreign nation creates structural vulnerabilities, regardless of the country of origin.
