How Connected Vehicles Expand Cyber Risk Surface

Car Hacking Village's Ghali on Automotive Security for AI-Driven Mobility Ecosystem Rahul Neel Mani (@rneelmani) • March 28, 2026

Modern vehicles are interconnected cyber-physical platforms with an attack surface spanning mobile applications, backend servers, over-the-air update pipelines and artificial intelligence-driven decision systems. Each layer introduces risks that conventional IT security frameworks were never built to handle, with vulnerabilities increasingly emerging across the broader ecosystem.

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"Unlike a traditional IT system, like a mail server or your home network, the worst case scenario involves things like safety implications or real-world operational disruptions like closing down a road or being able to cause damage to the environment," said Kamel Ghali, vice president at Car Hacking Village.

As vehicles become more software-defined and reliant on over-the-air updates, they risk inheriting traditional IT weaknesses. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence models, Ghali said, must be protected from external influence ...