Having an entire transport system digitised opens it up to attack from nation states, hacktivists, cyber terrorists and others with wide ranging motives such as making money, causing chaos or stealing information. Road side message boards have already been hacked and cameras infected with ransomware. ITS brings with it its own unique set of risks.
The Cyberattacks Against Intelligent Transportation Systems report takes an in-depth look at not only attack vectors that can be applied to vehicles, but to the entire system. This includes vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure and infrastructure-to-infrastructure. What’s also vital to consider is communications systems, and threats to automated tolls, weather stations, speed sensors and myriad other systems that ensure travellers’ safety on the roads.
“The report also outlines the threats and solutions regarding ITS. It’s quite a challenge to secure such a vast system against cyber-attacks, however, solutions such as firewalls, anti-malware, network segmentation, patch management and vulnerability scanning, when used together, can go a long way to holding off any malicious actors,” Anvee Alderton, channel manager for Trend Micro Southern Africa, advises.
