Toronto, Ontario – As more and more cars on the road become interconnected via the internet, one of Canada’s leading cybersecurity experts is warning consumers of “a huge transformation” currently underway in the automotive world.
In an interview for Automotive News Canada, the CEO of Windsor-based automotive cybersecurity firm Vehiqilla, A.J. Khan laid out some of the threats both automakers and consumers will have to face in this increasingly interconnected landscape.
“In the automotive industry itself, the challenge has been the connected environment – the cybersecurity issues which have not been foreseen,” said Khan. “Your vehicle will become the centre of your communication and it has to be secure. Consider a vehicle driving from Toronto to Miami and passing through so many different jurisdictions, your data will be shared in all those jurisdictions. So is your data secure?”
Khan mentions that this includes any data from devices connected to the vehicle as well as the tracking data from the vehicle itself–all of which are vulnerable to hackers.
“We are not ready for a massive breach. We are still far away from having strong protection on vehicles,” warned Khan. “But the good news is that this is being taken very seriously. There is a new standard coming out called ISO21434.”
This “new standard” Khan is referring to is an upcoming automotive security standard that once officially introduced in late 2020 will raise the bar for standard cybersecurity capabilities in all cars on Canadian roads.
“It will look at cybersecurity from the point of conception of the vehicle, to design, to operations, to maintenance, and to disposal. It will look at the whole life cycle of the vehicle and how to make that secure.” Khan adds that once this change is made, all Canadian automakers will be obligated to integrate the standard into their vehicles and only then will “our transportation will be secure from cyber breaches.”
“Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility,” remarked Khan.
