This is no good…
Cybersecurity is once more a hot topic and increased scrutiny has been unleased on automotive OEMs and dealerships. Both have been singled out by cybersecurity researchers and experts as quite vulnerable to attacks. That could disrupt the manufacturing of vehicles and/or parts or leak sensitive personal info of car buyers to hackers.
Learn why a car buyer sued a dealer for a private car sale here.
Almost a year ago, Toyota made headlines as its supply chain suffered a crippling cyberattack that many blamed on Russia. The production disruption only lasted for 24 hours in Japan, but it did show that OEMs like Toyota’s suppliers are quite vulnerable to malicious online activity.
Just in the past month, software vulnerabilities have been detected and corrected at Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz. There likely are more undiscovered holes in their security and at other automakers as the industry teams up with cybersecurity firms to locate and patch them.
When it comes to car dealerships, CBT News learned from experts that the reluctance to fully embrace the internet in the sales process has led to the industry lagging far behind others on data protection practices. AT&T’s head of cybersecurity evangelism – yes, that’s a real job – told the automotive news outlet part of the problem is dealership employee habits.
“Employees in a car dealership may have lax security hygiene which means it’s even easier for adversaries to launch attacks.” If you don’t have even a remote idea of what that means, you just might be part of the problem.
CBT News also cites a CDK Global cyberattack case study which was published October 2022. In that study, it concluded 15% of car dealerships were exposed to cyberattacks in one form or another. A number of those resulted in financial hits for the dealership. With profit margins for car sales shrinking, dealers have become quite cost conscious, so hopefully as they realize the risks they take measures to shore up against cyberattacks in the future.
Source: CBT News
Image via Toyota
