Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

As technology continues to advance, the potential for hacking and cyber-attacks on various devices and systems has become a major threat. This has extended to the automotive industry, with increasing numbers of car hacks being reported. With the rise in the production of electric vehicles (EVs), these attacks have escalated in frequency and severity.

Fuzz testing is a popular testing approach used to find bugs in C/C++ and embedded software, particularly memory corruptions. It has proven effective for identifying obscure bugs that are difficult to find through other testing methods. This testing approach is increasingly being adopted by automotive companies to comply with new security standards, save time, mitigate costs, and improve software quality. Let's have a look at how fuzzing is helping all of these automotive companies.

From its inception, the automotive industry has been shaped by innovation and disruption. In recent years, these transformations have taken shape in rapid digitization, ever-growing Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure, and advanced connectivity. These shifts have redirected the automotive industry, meeting and surpassing customer expectations for what vehicles should accomplish.

As vehicles are becoming increasingly dependent on software, automotive software teams are adopting CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous deployment/delivery). This enables them to build, test, and deploy code faster than ever while simultaneously reducing potential maintenance costs. In automotive projects, functional and security bugs can be highly consequential, especially if they are found in the later stages of software development or, even worse, after shipping.

The content of this post is solely the responsibility of the author. AT&T does not adopt or endorse any of the views, positions, or information provided by the author in this article. Most, if not all, industries are evolving on a digital level heading into 2023 as we take the journey to edge computing. But the automotive industry is experiencing technological innovation on another level.

It used to be cool if your car had GPS and a dashboard screen, remote lock on a key, and a video player for the kids to watch movies during road trips. Then came bluetooth for your phone and keyless start. Not anymore. The bells and whistles available in today’s cars have left them all in the dust. Video player? Let’s be honest. This generation knows and expects on-demand streaming to keep them entertained. Cars can now function as fully equipped communications centers.

The popularity of electric vehicles is partly a response to the desire of achieving sustainability and carbon footprint reduction. Automobile manufacturers are making substantial investments to tackle emissions issues, create environment-friendly vehicles, and align with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements. To achieve brand edge and investment appeal, automakers market ESG as a business strategy.

As more connected vehicles hit the road, cyberattacks are increasing. Deloitte estimates that there will be over 470 million connected cars in use by 2025 if their popularity continues to grow at the current rate. And because each connected car produces about 25 GB of data every hour, they are a tempting challenge for cybercriminals and bad actors with malicious intent.

The future is arriving faster than you think. By 2030, fully automated vehicles are expected to account for 12% of global vehicle sales—a number that hikes to 20% for new vehicle sales in China. Tomorrow, 1st December, the first electric, semi-autonomous lorries with a range of 500 miles roll off the Tesla production line – headed to Pepsi.