A device (100) and method (200, 300) authenticate and secure control event data for a vehicle, wherein the device includes: A) a microcontroller (104), coupled to receive control event information, for attaching a first time stamp and vehicle identification number VIN to the control event information to provide first information and sending the first information to memory (106) in time overlap fashion; B) the memory (106), coupled to the microcontroller (104) and a microprocessor (108), for storing first information and second information in time overlap fashion; and C) the microprocessor (108), coupled to the memory (106) and a plurality of transducers (110), for determining whether received impact data varies from previous impact data, and where received impact data varies, adding a second time stamp and VIN to the received impact data to form second information.