European cars, hacker-proof since 2022

Autonomous cars are a milestone the automotive industry is holding on to tightly, and more and more models include several driver assistance systems that improve the driving experience. Some are small aids to stay in the lane and maintain a cruise speed. Others allow detecting vehicles and other obstacles and avoiding accidents. They can also take control of steering and braking to park by themselves, but all of them have one problem: they are susceptible to being hacked.

A clever hacker can act on the car’s software and affect its normal operation. This is a considerable safety risk, because its operation can be interfered with and cause highly undesirable dangerous situations. So the European Union is going to require that all cars with this type of autonomous driving elements, whether very limited or more complete, be fully cyber-secure.

Cybersecurity legislation for cars

This regulation entered into force on 1 January 2021, although it will not begin to apply until July 2022 and will be mandatory from 2024. This regulation applies to cars, vans, motorhomes, trucks and buses, but also to light four-wheeled vehicles if they have level 3 autonomous driving systems. It also applies to trailers if they have at least one electronic control unit.

The cyber-secure car seal will apply to vehicles that demonstrate that they are protected against 70 vulnerabilities. This list of risks to avoid includes cyberattacks during the development, production and post-production processes, so the certified vehicle will be protected throughout its entire useful life.

It is a measure that will offer confidence and security to users of these vehicles, who will be fully assured that no one will interfere with these very delicate systems, which could be accessed before commercialisation. The seal will guarantee that everything is correct and that no fraudulent intervention can take place later on.

If a car has been manufactured outside the European Union and is to be marketed in Europe, it must pass this test or it cannot be approved. Because of this, it could not be sold in the EU, and if it were shown to have tried to deceive the certifying company, it will receive a fine of 30,000 euros for each car involved.

Cars will receive the APPROVED cybersecurity seal and a score ranging from 3 to 5 depending on the results obtained. This cybersecurity certificate will be granted by a duly authorised company trained to carry out this security test. At present there is only one company in the whole world that can do this work. It is EUROCYBCAR, a Spanish company that has been working for several years on these analyses of vehicles equipped with autonomous driving systems.

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