Automotive Cybersecurity Risks Emerge as New Frontier for Corporate Risk Officers

The Financial Times has flagged automotive cybersecurity as an emerging threat vector, though the publication's coverage appears limited behind its paywall, leaving critical details about specific vulnerabilities and incidents largely unspecified.

What's clear from the headline alone is telling: cybersecurity professionals and corporate risk managers are now being asked to consider the security posture of something most companies have treated as purely physical assets—their vehicle fleets. For CFOs managing everything from executive transportation to field service vehicles, this represents a category of risk that didn't exist in any meaningful way a decade ago.

The timing is notable. Modern vehicles are essentially computers on wheels, packed with connectivity features that range from GPS tracking and remote diagnostics to over-the-air software updates. Fleet management systems increasingly integrate with corporate networks for expense tracking, maintenance scheduling, and route optimization. Each connection point represents a potential entry vector—not just for vehicle theft or manipulation, but for broader network intrusion.

The question finance leaders should be asking isn't whether automotive cybersecurity matters, but rather: what's the actual exposure? A compromised fleet management system could expose employee location data, corporate travel patterns, or serve as a pivot point into enterprise networks. For companies with large vehicle fleets—logistics firms, utilities, field service operations—the attack surface is substantial.

Here's the thing everyone's missing: this isn't just about hackers remotely hijacking cars in some Hollywood scenario (though that's theoretically possible). The more mundane risk is data exposure and compliance liability. Modern vehicles generate enormous amounts of data. Who has access to it? Where is it stored? What happens when a leased vehicle is returned? These are questions that typically fall outside traditional IT security frameworks, yet they carry the same regulatory and financial risks.

The insurance implications alone deserve attention. Cyber insurance policies may not explicitly cover vehicle-based breaches, while traditional auto insurance certainly doesn't contemplate network intrusions. CFOs accustomed to clear risk transfer mechanisms may find themselves in a coverage gap.

What's needed—and what the FT's coverage presumably addresses in detail—is a framework for assessing automotive cyber risk that goes beyond the vehicle itself. This means evaluating fleet management vendors, telematics providers, and the integration points between automotive systems and corporate infrastructure. It means asking procurement teams questions they've never considered when negotiating vehicle leases or fleet contracts.

The broader pattern here is familiar to anyone tracking enterprise technology: the attack surface keeps expanding into domains previously considered "operational" rather than "technical." Vehicles are just the latest example. HVAC systems, building access controls, manufacturing equipment—all increasingly networked, all increasingly vulnerable, all sitting outside traditional security perimeters.

For finance leaders, the immediate question is whether automotive cybersecurity appears in your risk register, your insurance coverage analysis, or your vendor security assessments. If not, the FT's coverage suggests it probably should.