Automakers are implementing an incredible range of smart connected technologies to create an amazing user experience, but they also need to focus on user security. That mindset should be the guiding principle for all IoT device manufacturers, no matter their size or business/consumer application.
Increased Connectivity, Increased Risks
A recent McKinsey & Company report on cybersecurity and connected cars states, “Products can be secure only if they are designed with security in mind.” As cars become more complex, they require more electronic control units and lines of code. Connectivity enables self-driving or driver-assist capabilities and improved safety features. But connectivity also increases the risk, as these complex safety and navigation systems are more vulnerable to hacking.
That’s true of any device that connects to the internet. No matter the device or its application, it shares an underlying need for critical security and authentication with all other IoT devices.
Organizations across a variety of industries are deploying IoT devices to create new efficiencies and a higher level of visibility into operational insights. However, because these smart devices all connect to the network and all collect, analyze and share ever-growing volumes of data, they also create new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Attackers are always on the lookout for new ways to penetrate organizations’ networks and gain access to systems and sensitive data stores. For example, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology warns that personal smart medical devices such as pacemakers could become prime targets for hackers.
More parts suppliers creates a fragmented supply chain. As manufacturers incorporate dozens of connected systems from different vendors, they inevitably build multiple devices that cannot “talk” to each other and share data efficiently (if at all), increasing security risks and raising costs.
