Vehicle hacking and data theft increases

Even before we get into the subject of self-driving cars, vehicles today are basically moving data factories. Modern cars are fitted with an array of GPS devices, sensors, and in-car communication and entertainment platforms that make them an increasingly profitable target for hackers and data thieves.

Criminals have learned to piggyback into private networks through connected home appliances and smart devices, thanks to the lack of security standards among the thousands of device manufacturers and service providers. Likewise, the automobile is likely to increasingly become the backdoor of choice in the coming years thanks to the growing amount of data they collect and store about our day-to-day lives. Attackers will have the choice of targeting either the vehicles themselves, perhaps using them to access email accounts and then personal information, or the cloud services where our data is routinely sent for storage and analysis. Large scale harvesting and resale of this data on the black market is highly lucrative for cybercriminals.

Another very real danger is that malicious actors could learn to compromise the digital controls and safety features of modern vehicles. The idea of hijacking autonomous cars and taking over their controls may seem far-fetched right now, but it’s a threat that’s being taken seriously by the automotive industry as well as lawmakers. During 2020, we’re likely to see more debate over this aspect of the safety of self-driving vehicles, as the regulatory framework that will allow them to operate on our roads continues to take shape.