BALI, Indonesia—Self-driving cars are creating a new front upon which cyber-security professionals and hackers are bound to battle in the coming years, an expert predicted during the 2016 Kaspersky Lab Asia-Pacific Summit in Bali, Indonesia, from October 5 to October 8.
As more and more automobiles that navigate on software hit the road, a new war is emerging between defenders and attackers, said Vitaly Kamluk, Kaspersky Lab’s Research Team director for the Asia Pacific.
The year 2020 is seen to commence the era of driverless cars, Kamluk said during his presentation to members of the media from the region on October 8.
Some 20 years from now, “probably, it could be hard to find a car that is manually driven,” he said.
A car that could come to a person’s place and pick him up is very rewarding. It would be “super optimal, cheaper and much more efficient,” according to Kamluk. However, there are safety issues.
Cyber-security experts generally agree that car computers are “hackable” and could be compromised.
In an earlier statement, Kaspersky Lab claimed that carmakers were facing a growing number of cybe attacks deployed by actors who wish to steal intellectual property and other sensitive corporate data in the automotive industry.
According to the Russian cybersecurity firm, a person’s automobile could be controlled by another once its system gets compromised by a hack. Kaspersky Lab noted that Ferrari has updated its system in response to the current threat landscape. Automobile manufacturers are racing to get on the road self-driving cars by 2020, data from the Internet revealed. Some of them are committing to make their cars available in 2018.
The manufacturing of self-driven automobiles is seen to provide defenders with amazing opportunities in the cyber-security industry as self-driving platforms would require their expertise, Kamluk said.