By – Dr. Raushan Singh , Assistant Professor, Department of CSE, SRM University -AP
A new batch of attacks is yet to come. Sensors are the sensory organs of modern vehicles, supporting detection, evaluation, and examination of the surrounding environment to identify safe driving conditions. They convert these detection parameters into inputs for the vehicle’s systems, enabling appropriate actions. Just like our eyes, nose, ears, and skin, sensors continuously warn us about unwanted situations while providing the information needed for safe operation.
Imagine driving a car that has been promised to be one of the safest on the road. Almost every automobile manufacturer assures its customers that the greater the number of sensors, or the more intelligent the sensors are, the safer and more secure the vehicle becomes. But an important question arises: Are your vehicles really safe and secure when the sensors themselves are compromised?
If the very components responsible for sensing the environment are attacked, the resulting series of events can be catastrophic. Our cyber-safe systems are gradually moving toward unsafe cyber-physical systems because sensors and actuators are becoming major threats to the automotive industry. Since every decision made by a vehicle depends on the information collected by these sensors, any compromise at this first point of contact directly affects the overall behaviour of the system.
There has been significant research on vulnerability studies of sensors across different domains, with the automotive sector receiving one of the top priorities because human lives are directly involved. As vehicles become increasingly connected and autonomous, public awareness about sensor security is equally important to ensure that users understand the risks associated with compromised hardware.
With the onset of the quantum era, another dimension of cyber threats is emerging. One such challenge is the “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” (HNDL) attack, where adversaries intercept and silently store encrypted data today with the expectation of decrypting it in the future using quantum computers, and many such attacks are yet to come. This further raises concerns about the long-term security of connected and autonomous vehicles.
There have already been several cases worldwide involving popular automobile companies where self-driving vehicles have been involved in severe accidents, resulting in the loss of human lives. These incidents have occurred while autonomous driving technology is still in its preliminary stage. It is not far off when such incidents could become even more catastrophic as autonomous vehicles become increasingly common on public roads.
The solution, as suggested by recent research, is to make the sensors connected to vehicles more resilient against different types of non-invasive attacks. They should also comply with quantum resilience requirements and be rigorously tested against glitches and electromagnetic attacks. Since sensors are the first point of contact with the environment, their inputs determine how the entire system behaves. If this behaviour is not properly managed and secured, the consequences can be catastrophic for both the vehicle and its occupants.
At the user level, awareness and preventive measures are equally important. Vehicle owners should be careful while installing aftermarket products in their vehicles and should always prefer authorised automobile service centres for any modifications or repairs. It is important to verify the certifications of any component or part being added to the vehicle and ensure that it complies with the required safety standards. Users should also be aware of the signs of hardware-level hacking. While optimum mechanisms are increasingly available to detect and mitigate software-level attacks, hardware-level compromises often remain unnoticed and can directly influence the behaviour of sensors and actuators, posing serious safety risks.
