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Top 5 Risks You Hadn't Considered in Connected Cars

  • Top 5 Risks You Hadn't Considered in Connected Cars-

    In-Car Commercials

    Commercials invading your personal space: First on the list is not necessarily a computer security risk but one of road safety. It has been well-documented that driver distraction is the top cause of vehicular accidents. With web browsers already popping up on center consoles, as seen in the Tesla Model S, the next generation of distraction appears to be on the way; car manufacturers are envisioning dashboards as mobile e-commerce platforms of the future. That means we may soon be able to expect uninvited location-based ads appearing in our cars, directing us to the nearest Starbucks or offering us vouchers for nearby service stations. This could be as distracting as it would be invasive.

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Top 5 Risks You Hadn't Considered in Connected Cars

  • 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
  • Top 5 Risks You Hadn't Considered in Connected Cars-2

    In-Car Commercials

    Commercials invading your personal space: First on the list is not necessarily a computer security risk but one of road safety. It has been well-documented that driver distraction is the top cause of vehicular accidents. With web browsers already popping up on center consoles, as seen in the Tesla Model S, the next generation of distraction appears to be on the way; car manufacturers are envisioning dashboards as mobile e-commerce platforms of the future. That means we may soon be able to expect uninvited location-based ads appearing in our cars, directing us to the nearest Starbucks or offering us vouchers for nearby service stations. This could be as distracting as it would be invasive.

Connected car security has been a hot topic ever since the experiment in which hackers remotely ran an Internet-connected Jeep off the road. Even if the average driver isn't necessarily scared that the same thing will happen to them, connected automobiles could disrupt our everyday lives in other ways. And, with an estimated 250 million connected cars expected on the road by 2020, these disruptions could be coming sooner than you may think.

Automakers are eager to put Internet connectivity to good use – tracking down stolen vehicles, preprogramming trip routes, and even making driverless cars a full-scale reality — which Tesla is actively working on, having just rolled out its highly anticipated self-driving features. But that doesn't mean there won't also be a few side effects. Richard Kirk, SVP at AlienVault, the Silicon Valley-based provider of unified security management and crowd-sourced threat intelligence, outlines a few scenarios.