BSI publishes situation report on the automotive industry

The digitization of vehicles is progressing faster than one might think. Vehicles are increasingly becoming smartphones on wheels thanks to intelligent assistants and the increasing complexity of software functions. But companies in the automotive industry are also becoming more and more dependent on secure IT systems. The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has published a situation report on the automotive industry that highlights the challenges, both in production and in vehicles.

Various ransomware incidents

The control of the vehicle itself, but also its networking with the infrastructure, is being rapidly digitized. In Germany, for example, the world's first approval for an automated lane-keeping system was granted last year. New technologies must therefore not be able to be manipulated under any circumstances, and IT security must not have any impact on driving safety. In the reporting period, however, many automotive suppliers were once again affected by ransomware incidents, which led to significant interruptions in service provision. The fact that one in three companies is also generally affected by IT security incidents is also confirmed in the automotive sector.

In the situation report, the BSI also documents the vulnerability of current vehicle systems to attacks and manipulation. For example, various infotainment systems in individual vehicles have already failed due to faulty metadata from a radio station. The report also discusses unsecured API interfaces for attacks on keyless locking systems and possible scenarios for the interruption of fast charging processes.

The entire industry situation can be seen as PDF (4 MB) can be downloaded from the BSI website.

Source: BSI/Editorial Office