Self-drive cars pose grave new security challenges
IN A world where motor vehicles can be weapons and cars increasingly depend on internal computers and internet connections, automakers are under increasing pressure to find ways to guard against cyber attacks.
Auto industry chiefs, security experts and government officials warned at an auto industry conference in Detroit on Friday that hackers can threaten to do everything against cars that they do to other computers: remotely steal owner information, or hijack them and render them more dangerous than the truck that killed 84 people in Nice on July 14.
“When you look at autonomous autos, the consequences are so much greater” than the Nice at t ack by a possibly Isla mic State-inspired man, said John Carlin, assistant US attorney-general for national security,
General Motors’ chair and chief execut ive Mar y Barra said that the advanced information technology that comes in new cars, especially “connect iv it y ” s y stems l i n k i ng cars to t he internet, creates huge new challenges.
“One of these challenges is the issue of cyber security, and make no mistake, cyber security is foundational,” she said.
Barra pointed to the need to protect the personal data of customers who use their in-car system for banking or to pay for other services.
On top of t hat is t he complexity of the newest auto IT s y stems, which, she sa id, “opens up opportunities for t hose who would do ha rm through cyber attacks”.
The landscape is changing
Carlin said cyber attacks generally have cost the US economy billions of dollars, and that the problem is that hackers of t en outrace ef f or t s t o strengthen security.
That will be the case for the auto industry, especially as it pushes ahead with self-driving cars, he said.
“We know these terrorists. They don’t have the capability yet. But if they’re trying to get people to drive truck into crowds, then it doesn’t take too much imagination to think they are going to take an autonomous car and drive it into a crowd of people,” said Carlin.
The problem, said Steven Center, a Honda Motor vice president, is that car makers are under pressure from consumers to add more and more connectivity features to their vehicles.
The landscape is changing fast, according to Jonathan Allen, a cyber security expert with Booz Allen who is helping car makers and their suppliers organise to deal with threats.
Up until two years ago, manufacturers tended to downplay the threat posed by hackers. But there has been a cultural shift within automotive business, which is now taking the challenge seriously.