The recent success of the Shanghai Motor Show is a strong indicator of the growth of the Chinese automotive sector, particularly in terms of electric cars and onboard intelligence. Of the 90 million vehicles (cars, trucks, and buses) produced worldwide in 2024, 31.3 million were produced in China, i.e., 34% of the global total, according to an Inovev report. France is also following this trend, with many consumers now opting for cars from Chinese brands such as BYD, Xpeng, Beiking, and Hongqi.
Against this backdrop, Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, is drawing users’ attention to how their data could be used for malicious purposes. Indeed, it is inadvisable to synchronize one’s phone or any other device with a vehicle, whether their own or even more so in the case of a rental car, as the car could use its internet connectivity to make a copy of contacts and other sensitive data and upload to the Internet, long before one has the ability of deleting it when returning the rental car, for example.
A modern vehicle is packed with computers, lidars, various radios, and external cameras. What’s more, it is also equipped with aerial updating capabilities that could very well be repurposed as a surveillance platform.
According to Nate Drier, Technical Lead, Red Team, Sophos: “As with any technology, given the opportunity, necessity, intent, and capability, in-vehicle technology can be misused. Car manufacturers can track the movements of modern vehicles in real time, and this is likely to be even truer for electric vehicles. Yet this information could be used to build rich maps of an environment encompassing both the physical and electromagnetic environment (by searching for Wi-Fi networks, the positions of cell phone towers, etc.).”
Sophos, therefore, recommends being aware and checking what manufacturers are collecting on vehicles, and what they can do using over-the-air update capabilities.
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