https://phys.org/news/2018-06-cyber-threats-cars.html

The team adds, however, that each additional feature and function in a connected car brings with it digital security risks and vulnerabilities that could expose critical vehicle systems to those who might exploit them for illegal activity. "The potential costs of vehicle cybersecurity attacks and their prevention measures need to be weighed up against the undoubted benefits which technological innovations in connected cars may bring," the team says.

There are four prominent features that must be investigated to which the researchers allude. First, the largely commercial nature of "cyberspace" makes regulation and usage very difficult to control. Secondly, there is such a vast array of components across the globe with countless sources and intermediaries handling them during manufacture and in use. Thirdly, there is huge potential for new vulnerabilities and risks to emerge suddenly, so-called zero-day attacks, for instance. Finally, the very nature of cyber threats is highly covert and so the public, business, and government assessment of potential risk underestimates the reality by a long way.