Research Insights: New study shows just how bad vehicle hacking has gotten – Roadshow

Cybersecurity automotive firm Upstream released a report revealing just how bad cyberattacks on the automotive industry have gotten over the years – 150 incidents in 2019, or a whopping 99% increase; the report discusses how bug bounties are essential for conquering and combatting these types of attacks.

Research Insights:

Grant McCracken, Director, Solutions Architecture at Bugcrowd

“The prevalence of car-based cyber threats has exploded for the exact same reason that threats against IoT devices boomed – accessibility. These are new risks facing the automotive sector, as traditionally cars have been air-gapped and not connected to anything externally. However this has quickly changed with modern vehicles now being ultra-connected – and cybercriminals have taken note. As with most new technologies, there is a high number of vulnerabilities close to launch which either haven’t been tested, or haven’t even been considered, by developers. However, after this initial wave, organizations begin to recognize those vulnerabilities and adapt to threats. In these situations, bug bounties can be an advantageous way to get ahead of these threats by leveraging the creativity of the Crowd – with the Crowd’s experience, whitehat researchers would be able to find the same threats bad actors are leveraging to carry out these attacks. We’ve seen tremendous success through crowdsourced approaches, and they’re integral to helping secure technology and its implementations – regardless of whether its new or evolving.”