Opinion: Could your electric vehicle pose a cybersecurity risk?
Opinion: Could your electric vehicle pose a cybersecurity risk?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/opinion-could-electric-vehicle-pose-194259170.html
Publish Date: 2026-02-02 14:42:00
Source Domain: ca.news.yahoo.com
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. Canada and China recently reached an agreement allowing for the import of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) into Canada. In exchange for China cutting tariffs on imported canola from roughly 85 per cent to 15 per cent, Canada has agreed to cut its 100-per-cent tariff on Chinese EVs to 6.1 per cent. The deal would set a limit of 49,000 EVs at first, ramping up to 70,000 by the fifth year.Not everyone was enthusiastic about the new agreement. Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, criticized the deal, “I call it the spy car that they’re bringing in.” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also mentioned cybersecurity concerns. “There are rules and regulations in place in America about the cybersecurity of our vehicles and the systems that go into those, so I think it might be hard for the Chinese to comply with those kind of rules,” Greer said.Are EVs a potential cybersecurity risk? Modern vehicles, including EVs, are essentially computers on wheels. Around 40 per cent of the cost of manufacturing a new car is due to electronic components, and new vehicles can contain over 100 million lines of code. They contain numerous computer chips, cameras, sensors, microphones, and Internet connectivity.Over-the-air updates allow for the vehicle’s software to be updated remotely. Due to their connectivity and technological complexity, modern vehicles are vulnerable to cyber-threats such as hacking and spyware.These concerns are not merely theoretical. There are examples of vehicles being remotely hacked, disabling the engine or controlling the steering. In Denmark and Norway, Chinese electric buses were found to contain a security vulnerability allowing for them to be remotely accessed and deactivated. A mass deactivation of vehicles could cause large-scale chaos on the roads and bring traffic, emergency operations, and other critical services to a halt.There are also privacy concerns. Location sensors and microphones, for example, have the capability to potentially track travel patterns and eavesdrop on conversations. The U.K. government warned against discussing official government business inside of, and plugging phones into, Chinese-made electric vehicles, comparing the latter to the risk of plugging an unknown USB drive into a computer. Israel has banned the use of Chinese EVs by government officials and banned the vehicles from military bases. The abundance of sensors and the capability to transmit vehicle data over the air transform a modern vehicle into a potential “surveillance platform.”Given the important safety and security concerns, careful adherence within the automotive industry to engineering best practices and safety standards is critical. Standards such as ISO/SAE 21434 and SAE JA7496 lay out cybersecurity and risk management practices for vehicles across the entire product lifecycle. This lifecycle perspective is particularly important, as security is not something that can simply be added in at the end, like icing on a cake, but rather it needs to be baked into the entire engineering process, from design through operation and end of life.Moreover, securing EVs and other connected vehicles begins with the supply chain. Both the hardware and the software that enable the variety of functionalities must be secure and free of vulnerabilities that can compromise safety and privacy.This involves having visibility and traceability into the supply chain, knowing where components and software come from, and identifying whether anything has been tampered with or adulterated throughout the supply chain. Counterfeit electronics, for example, can harbour hidden, malicious circuitry that alter its functionality, as well as introduce performance and reliability issues.Sourcing components from trusted and authorized suppliers is a proven way to reduce such supply-chain risk. Public and private investments in domestic semiconductor manufacturing ensure that more electronic components are made at home as opposed to being sourced from abroad, strengthening the supply chain and the electronics ecosystem.Only time will tell if this deal with Canada will increase security vulnerabilities. But what is for certain is that vehicles are an important aspect of commerce and everyday life — and increasing automotive complexity and insecure supply chains create opportunities for vulnerabilities to be exploited by anyone, from hackers to state actors.Lifecycle-focused engineering practices, smart use of artificial intelligence and analytics tools, alignment with industry standards, secure and trusted supply chains, and a robust manufacturing ecosystem, are all pieces of the security puzzle that can help keep everyone safe behind the wheel.Zachary A. Collier is assistant professor of management at Radford University, and a visiting scholar at the Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST). He contributed to the development of the SAE JA7496 standard.Letters welcomeWe invite you to write letters to the editor. A maximum of 150 words is preferred. 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