CYBERSECURITY |
Research Group, disagrees that there is
a positive correlation between inter-connectivity
and cyber vulnerability.
He says, “A rail network can be severed by
breaking a small number of rails. A road
network is far more interconnected
and therefore requires far more
connections to be severed to
have the same effect.”
He also disagrees that a
traffic management system
heavily reliant on sensors
and wireless radio – which
may become the norm as
cites strive for greater
connectivity – makes it more
vulnerable to cyberattack.
Dr Waterson explains, “The
flows of data from sensors to the
control system would be much
easier to affect, but this would be of
limited impact because the fallibility of
sensor systems operating in real world
conditions means that control software is used
to identify and ignore anomalous data.”
082 Intertraffic World | Annual Showcase 2020
V2X Connected vehicle systems
being developed without
unifying standards
could represent a
cybersecurity risk
So what would be the worst case
scenario in his eyes? In the first few
minutes of a cyber offensive, Dr
Waterson, says that “providing a hacker
could turn all the lights green”, which
he doubts possible, “it is likely that
there would be a large number of
crashes”.
He adds, “Beyond the first few minutes
of impact, drivers would quickly establish
that the traffic lights need to be ignored and
would simply proceed with extreme care and
vigilance. This would likely cause a large
increase in delays on all journeys through a city,
so the longer term impact would be frustration
and economic cost rather than a threat to
direct safety.”
But Dr Sheng believes that Vehicle-to-
Everything (V2X) technology, which enables
a connected vehicle to become part of the road
infrastructure and the transport system “could
dramatically change the nature and severity of
a cyberattack”.
Dr Sheng is particularly concerned
that regulation is struggling to
keep pace with technology, and
believes it is an area that
state sponsored hackers
could exploit in the future.
He explains, “OEMs
are developing state-ofthe
art connected
systems, but many are
doing so independently
of each other. What’s
more there are very few
standards being developed
and without regulation that
promotes a robust cybersecurity
framework, some of these systems
could be infiltrated by hacker.”
With many automakers developing
intersection priority management systems,
which many see as a precursor to autonomous
driving, Dr Sheng says that in the future “it
might be possible for hackers to take control of
a vehicle either by hacking into the vehicle or the
infrastructure it is connected to”.
“The only way to prevent this,” he says, “is
for vehicle manufacturers, telecom providers,
roadside infrastructure suppliers and cyber
security professionals to collaborate before this
critical infrastructure is permanently laid down.
Once aligned, they need to work alongside a
regulator to develop standards for a system of
firewalls across a single tunnel from the outside
world to the transport system to guard against
cyber attacks.” ■
The fallibility of sensor sy world conditions means thsatetm cosn otproelr saotifntwg ainr er eisa l used to identify and ignore anomalous data
Dr Ben Waterson, Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton, UK
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