Cybersecurity experts are warning that the race toward electric vehicles is overlooking their vulnerability to cyberattacks.
A recent Deloitte Canada report on automotive cybersecurity concerns found that 84% of vehicle cyberattacks happened remotely while 50% of them occurred in the past two years, suggesting automotive cybersecurity risks will increase over the next few years.
“Modern vehicles are super-computers on wheels,” Stephen Meagher, the director of cybersecurity at Deloitte, told CTV News. “There are hundreds if not thousands of developers of parts manufacturers — from small chip manufacturers and firmware development all the way to control units and mobile applications that can connect to vehicles.”
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Meagher noted that the evolving technology of vehicles increases what is called “the attack surface area.”
Researchers at the University of Georgia have also identified automotive cybersecurity risks, including attacks on an electric vehicle through a charging station. Their study found that an attack on the charging station could damage the vehicle control system, in addition to any connected infrastructure.
“If a cyberattack happens, you will see some bad signals: Speed and acceleration of vehicles will be damaged, creating safety and functionality problems,” the study’s author Jin Ye said. “Or it might create some problems in energy management systems. The efficiency of electric vehicles will go down, and the batteries are likely to die in a very short time. All the signals we studied will have negative impacts on safety.”
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As the demand and push for electric vehicles increases, a MarketsandMarkets Research report suggested the automotive cybersecurity market will be worth $5.3 billion by 2026.
