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As cars become smarter and more connected, the demand for top-tier automotive cyber security has never been higher. With expert insights from PlaxidityX, a leading automotive cyber security company, we’ll guide you through the challenges and solutions protecting millions of vehicles worldwide. Whether you’re an industry expert or just curious about how cars are secured in the digital age, this podcast comprehensively looks at how cyber defenses are developed, tested, and deployed.
We don’t just talk about the technology; we talk about what it means for you—the driver, the manufacturer, the tech enthusiast. We explore how automotive cyber security solutions are applied in real-world scenarios to safeguard everything from onboard infotainment systems to critical vehicle control units.
Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of how manufacturers are staying one step ahead of hackers and ensuring a more secure, connected world.
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Welcome to cars, hackers and cybersecurity.
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Here we break down the latest in automotive cybersecurity,
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helping you stay ahead in building secure connected vehicles.
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Hi. Today we will discuss how connecting cars in smart homes introduces new conveniences and new cybersecurity challenges.
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A connected car, a smart home, and a smartphone walk into a bar. This could be the beginning of a nerdy tech joke, but it's not another step towards the connection of everything to everything took place recently with an announcement by Samsung Electronics and the Hyundai Motor Group, who partnered to create a new lifestyle future where your car is talking to your smart home and vice versa.
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Wait, what? Let's take a step back. For the sake of those of us who are not tech savvy or early adopters of new technology. What is the smart home? Think of digital devices, appliances, controllers, and switches in your home. In recent years, more and more of these devices have become part of a smart home ecosystem. The TV, the speakers, the doorbell.
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The air conditioned controller. The fridge. The list is endless. For starters, these devices can now talk to the internet.
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But it's not just about connectivity. The smart part means they leverage sensors to collect local data in real time.
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and combine it with the infinite data from the internet in order to act intelligently. Consequently, they learn many new tricks some cool, some useful, some plain bizarre.
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My washing machine, for example, knows what kind and how much laundry was put in it, and it communicates this information to the dryer so it will automatically set the optimal program to dry this load. My light switches know my evening lighting preference and turn on the perfect combination of lights every evening just before sundown. I can unlock my door from my phone's app even when I'm away, and my window shutters predict an upcoming storm and roll themselves down automatically ahead of time.
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All these smart devices and switches are connected wirelessly to the internet, and eventually to an app easily accessible on your smartphone. This may sound like a niche market for technology enthusiasts, but it's far from it. Some of the biggest names in tech are heavily invested in smart home and smart devices, including Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung, just to name a few.
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In the past, smart home technology had been expensive and complicated to implement, but it is becoming more and more mainstream. What is a smart car? By now, you probably heard the term software defined vehicle. Tesla is largely credited for popularizing this concept back in 2012 with the model S. In a nutshell, decoupling the vehicle, hardware and software allows a car manufacturer to keep updating the software on a regular basis throughout the life of the vehicle.
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Not only to fix problems but also to enhance performance, add new functionality, and introduce new capabilities. More and more mainstream cars are fully connected these days, not just paired to your smartphone, but also to the internet. Drivers can listen to streaming music, podcasts or online radio while passengers can stream videos or play online video games and the concept of recall completely transformed.
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While in the past a recall to fix a safety issue meant driving to the service center and waiting for a few hours for the mechanics to replace a part, not a great experience for the car owner, not to mention the cost to the OEM that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Today, many recalls are done as over the air updates.
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Just like the routine updates we all get on our smartphone. So now that we established the two domains of smart home and a smart connected car, let's go back to the latest development. These worlds are now colliding, or at least starting a beautiful friendship. Samsung and Hyundai are first movers, but this trend will surely be adopted by other players.
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Specifically, Samsung and Hyundai announced a bidirectional communication between smart homes and connected cars in order to offer new consumer services,
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home to car services.
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Car owners will be able to use their smart home app to control the car from home, such as starting the car and controlling in-vehicle temperature, opening and closing the windows, or checking the charging status.
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While this could also be accomplished by the Connected Cars OEM app, think of the new use cases combining the two ecosystems. Setting the home status to "away" on the smart home app on a cold day can automatically tell your car to get ready for a drive and start the heating.
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Car to home services. On the flip side, the car could control features inside your home. The in-vehicle infotainment display would be able to control home lights and temperature. But you can think of some smart scenarios as well. For example, unexpected traffic might mean you will be 45 minutes late to get home, so the car can automatically adjust the home air conditioning schedule to save energy.
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It can also share vehicle information to be displayed on home devices, such as showing the EV remaining battery and driving range on your TV or other smart displays around your house.
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In a word, cybersecurity.
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Connected cars are increasingly becoming targets of cyberattacks as vehicles are becoming powered by more and more software offering multiple connectivity channels such as cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
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They inadvertently create new attack vectors. Automotive cybersecurity first got industry attention with the famous Jeep Cherokee researcher hacking way back in 2015.
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The constant increase of automotive cyberattacks and publicly disclosed risks and vulnerabilities eventually triggered automotive cybersecurity regulation.
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Most notably the UN SEC R155 regulation and the international standard ISO SA 21434.
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Technically speaking, connecting the smart home ecosystem to a vehicle introduces a whole new attack vector, not just a big one—a huge one. Unlike the automotive industry that is heavily regulated and sets high standards of quality and safety,
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smart home devices are not there yet. Attention to smart device cybersecurity is just starting. As smart devices made by countless vendors become cheap and widespread, it's pretty much impossible to assess the cyber posture of your smart home ecosystem. But judging from news coverage of vulnerabilities, it's far from being great. The well-known Ring security camera was hacked back in 2019, putting customers at risk.
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A more recent camera security scandal involves the Wyze Webcam, where some owners reported seeing feeds from cameras they didn’t own or recognize. This led The New York Times Wirecutter to pull its recommendation of Wyze security cameras after six years of reviews. But smart home security concerns are not limited to webcams. Researchers found that even smart light bulbs can be hacked, and hackers can use them to infiltrate your home Wi-Fi network and steal personal information.
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It's not surprising that a recent survey showed that Gen Z and millennials are very worried about their smart home devices being hacked. Let’s be honest with ourselves—how much security, attention, and cyber protection can really be embedded in a $15 smart camera? And it only takes one weak link, one poorly protected smart device, to hack into your entire home network.
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Now imagine the consequences of connecting this new ecosystem of online smart home devices, appliances, and switches made by countless vendors and not yet regulated for cybersecurity to the vehicle you use to drive yourself and your loved ones around at 75 mph. What could possibly go wrong? One scenario is taking over a connected vehicle remotely by exploiting a vulnerability in a smart light bulb, accessing the vehicle, and manipulating its functions or stealing personal data.
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That’s the home-to-car vector. But also consider the car-to-home vector. If a hacker compromises a connected vehicle, beyond the consequences at the vehicle level, they could extend their reach into your home, accessing home cameras, unlocking smart doors, manipulating the AC, and other smart devices.
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The journey to make the car an extension of the home and digital life started a while ago, and linking the smart home ecosystem with the connected car is inevitable. It has the potential to shape a new lifestyle and revolutionize the car user experience, but at the same time, it introduces major cybersecurity risks that must be addressed to make this evolution safe for everyone.
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This reinforces even further the importance of automotive cybersecurity, from protecting in-vehicle networks with Ethernet intrusion detection and CAN bus intrusion detection to hardening and protecting host ECUs like infotainment systems and telematics units. Continuous scanning for vulnerabilities through fleet cyber monitoring detects attacks and responds to risks and threats.
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Conclusion. A connected car, a smart home, and a smartphone walk into a bar. And if you don't want this joke to have a disastrous cyber ending, you better make sure your vehicles have the appropriate cyber protection measures in place.
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That's all for today's episode. Keep your engines running smoothly and your cyber defenses sharp.
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Stay connected by subscribing and visiting placidity.x-com.
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Until next time, stay safe on the road and in the cloud.