A new report into the cyber security of connected cars suggests that the number of attacks on vehicles doubled in the year to 2019, and were up seven-fold compared with 2016.
The research by U Switch suggests that two-thirds of new cars are now connected, with all cars expected to be online by 2026.
It points out keyless vehicle theft, weaknesses in connected mobile apps, personal data theft and the possibility a vehicle’s control can be taken over remotely are risks.
The report explains that very little needs to be changed to have serious consequences. “To give you an idea of how little needs to be interfered with to successfully hack people’s data, cybercriminals stole 380,000 people’s personal data from British Airways by changing only 22 lines of code out of hundreds of thousands”, the report explains, warning that without the proper security to keep scammers out, discovering what attacks have taken place “is like finding a needle in a digital haystack”.
