The global cybersecurity business in the automotive industry – which was valued by Allied Market Research at $3.3 billion in 2020 for the purchase of protection systems alone – could surpass in 2030 to nearly $22 billion.
Likewise, the cost of insurance premiums which in 2022 reached (according to an estimate by Munich Re) 9.2 billion dollars should reach 22 billion already in 2025.
These figures provide a dimension of the problem that is becoming more and more pressing with the improvement of cars, with the diffusion of V2T connections and with the expansion of the digital dialogue – even after registration – between car and manufacturer. As a report by Global Data points out, cyber security in vehicles must be extended, defending both the front-end and back-end of car systems and all the infrastructure on which modern connected models are based. In the future, the automotive industry will face an increasing number of cyberattacks as progress introduces more connected and digital and electronic systems into new vehicles, but also as companies themselves become more digital.
Global Data’s report points out that the data collected by connected cars can be extremely sensitive. As car use becomes intertwined with other aspects of our lives – such as the use of social media or e-commerce – the connected vehicle becomes a potential gateway for cybercriminals to take over more areas of life of an individual.
The key value chain in cybersecurity in the automotive industry consists – as you know – of hardware, software and services. With chips now used in ‘mission-critical’ servers and ‘safety-critical’ applications, protection from cyber attacks is becoming increasingly critical and costly. The specific cybersecurity vulnerabilities for the automotive industry are numerous. Hackers could – for example – compromise the safety and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) of a vehicle in use or, worse, manipulate any autonomous functionality to directly cause an accident.
Criminals can also access the private information of the vehicle occupants such as current and previous locations, GPS destinations or smartphone contacts.
As automakers increasingly rely on over-the-air (OTA) updates to remotely add or update vehicle features, cybersecurity efforts will be needed to ensure these methods are isolated from threat actors.
At a higher level, automotive companies are also at risk of industrial cybercrime, such as theft of technological secrets or damage to their digital infrastructure. Insurer Munich Re expects global cybercrime losses across all sectors to reach $10.5 billion by 2025, nearly doubling the impact from 6 in 2021.
Many of the biggest automakers are still woefully unprepared, as a CyberAware survey has shown. Over 800,000 unprotected documents hosted on servers, clouds and databases were identified in 14 top automotive companies, with 215,000 employees having unprotected or compromised credentials.
Source: Ansa
I am an author at Global happenings and I mostly cover automobile news. In my time working in the automotive industry, I have developed a keen interest in the latest developments and trends. My writing skills have also allowed me to share my knowledge with others through articles and blog posts.
