Cybersecurity in the Automotive Industry

My career in the sales profession began in 1994 in the automotive industry, stemming from the activity of my father when sales and business security was more of a physical than a computer problem. This has changed with the acceptance of information technology. Cybersecurity is now a fundamental part of the customer service industry, which is becoming increasingly digital every day.

Today, the sale of a vehicle depends on information technology from the supply chain to the aftermarket. As the industry has evolved from using paper to automated systems for design, parts development, production, sales, maintenance and consumer care. That is why cyber security in each of the stages is more relevant every day. Currently, the user experience is the core of the decision making process for the purchase of a vehicle. The systems must give the consumer the confidence to make the purchase through an application or portal, after-sales services, user services in which they interact in different situations: from connecting their phone to go to an address, listen to music, get assistance by monitoring the vehicle systems, make a call automatically to emergency contacts or insurance, interaction with the vehicle with the use of biometric sensors, to the communication of the user with the brand. The services involve the sharing of user information with different systems, applications and entities that could cause security breaches.

According to KPMG's 2020 Global Automotive Executive Survey, 53 percent of consumers are concerned about the privacy of their data. Autonomous vehicles bring new cyber-security challenges, such as the possibility of controlling the vehicle itself by a third party or modifying system parameters. The industry has had a digital transformation in a few years, in which we will soon see changes in the transportation industry as a service, with the optimization of production processes with the Industrial Internet of things, digitization and the use of mobile applications has allowed the automotive industry an evolution in a way unimaginable in the times I started on the road of sales.

For this reason, cyber security helps organizations to serve in this interconnected world as a business enabler, supporting the user experience, mitigating potential breaches or data exposure.

In my view, the automotive industry needs more attention to cybersecurity in order to be able to provide a better service, as it is a pillar of the growth of our country. To maintain data privacy, Wizlynx Group has services focused on mitigating vulnerabilities and security breaches.