Cyber Attacking Vehicle Manufacturers
This month witnessed a cyber attack on a vehicle manufacturer in the UK. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) was a victim of the latest trend of crime. JLR reported that two of their plants were hit resulting in them having to shutdown their IT systems to avoid any more breaches. The day of the attack, Sunday 1st was most inconvenient as it was the day newly September “75” plated vehicles are rolled out to eager customers. Was this deliberate timing by the hackers? Probably. Disruption to business is the hacker’s goal.
Targeted businesses can usually continue their operations if they give in to the hackers and pay them. Funds are usually demanded in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. This cyber currency having no central ledger to audit, is designed to hide the user’s identities behind complex alphanumeric addresses. Transactions are therefore difficult to trace. If the hacked company does not pay, then it must be confident that it can recover all of its data that was put at risk. The longer the company takes to recover its operations, the more likely it will cease trading for good.
The reduction of sales has caused the car industry problems. Sales are down to a number of factors including an economic turndown in most countries, problems with the supply of computer chips for vehicle systems, an increase in sales taxes (USA) and an increase of cheaper priced imports from China. The last thing any vehicle manufacturer needs is a cyber attack thwarting business. The future is unknown, but it is expected other manufacturers will be hit at some point.
How can a successful attack be prevented ? Vehicle manufacturers need their plants and showrooms connected to networks across the country to allow data to be exchanged. Point of sale and customer data will be entered at dealers, updating centralised systems accordingly. Supply chains to manufacturers will have various connections. e-mail is utilized in earnest. Unscanned email can be infected with viruses and remotely executed programs if not caught by anti-virus tools. Businesses cannot stop using e-mail.
Imagine a case whereas the Tesla network is hacked. Will the cars become more self aware and override/ignore driver’s instructions? Will they all just refuse to operate? Will those with enough battery charge be directed to drive to a designation location ? All sounds a bit sci-fi, but the smarter the technology and with the increase in the use of AI today, one of these scenarios could become a possibility!
