How AI Will Play a Crucial Role in Mitigating Cyber Risk for the Auto Industry - Resilinc Co-Founder Sumit Vakil

The automotive industry recorded a 32% increase in the global number of cyber attacks between 2021 and 2022. This is on track to increase further in 2023. These figures are from Resilinc, a California-based supply chain mapping and monitoring company.

"The auto industry is a hotspot of data, making it a prime target for cyber attacks," Sumit Vakil, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Resilinc, tells Auto Futures.

The company's AI-powered risk monitoring solution, EventWatchAI, enables organisations in the auto sector to prepare for upcoming supply disruptions through the real-time alerts which it sends having tracked news across 104 million global sources. This allows businesses to put corrective measures in place to minimise the impact on their supply chain.

"While C-suites in the automotive sector appreciate and accept that serious cyber security risks are present, many fail to connect real implications of cyber breaches to the functionality of their business operations," says Vakil.

"Despite the uptick in cyber attacks, supplier visibility remains poor in the industry considering an estimated 80% of cyber attacks originate in an organisation’s sub-tier suppliers. This lack of visibility has certainly left the auto sector exposed, having also been the fourth most impacted industry by recorded cyber breaches in 2022, according to our data." 

According to Vakil, in September, 2023, Kia’s production line in the US state of Georgia become incapacitated by a cyber attack which resulted in a pause in manufacturing - cancelling shifts and delaying shipments and deliveries.

"The financial cost to organisations if this happens can be catastrophic, with the damage totalling up to $1.1 billion for every cyber breach that occurs," he says. 

In the case of the Kia Georgia cyber breach, Reslinc's AI solution EventWatchAI sensed the disruption and informed the organisations affected, allowing them to rapidly minimise or even prevent the knock-on damage.

"Rolls-Royce is still dealing with the effects of a cyber attack which happened in July that resulted in access issues to their website and it is still unclear whether sensitive data was also obtained illegally. It’s hard to ignore just how dramatic the impact of poor cyber security measures can be," he notes.

In March, 2023, Resilinc announced a strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners, a leading global tech-focused investment firm.

"We were very pleased to announce this strategic growth investment which will help us further expand our market-leading vision of supply chain resiliency. This growth capital will accelerate Resilinc’s product innovation, talent, and go-to-market functions to meet the growing demand for more resilient, sustainable, secure, and transparent supply chains," Vakil comments.

Harnessing The Power of AI

Vakil is positive about the impact of AI on the auto sector. From a supply chain perspective, AI is already making its mark and will continue to do so as it evolves, enabling organisations to become more resilient, he tells us.

"In that way, it is definitely something to be cheered by the auto sector. AI offers opportunities for optimisation, efficiency and improved decision-making, also allowing organisations to conduct in-depth cyber audits of their internal Information Technology (IT) systems and Operational Technology (OT) systems with greater ease and accuracy. When combined with AI-driven tools that can monitor for cyber breaches across the industry, organisations can identify vulnerabilities and potential disruptions swiftly and mitigate them faster than ever."

"AI will be very transformative to the auto sector, enabling organisations to operate more efficiently and drive data-informed decisions, even in the face of more sophisticated cyber threats. AI will continue to also have an impact more widely on demand forecasting, inventory management, and supplier risk, but as supply chains become more interconnected, AI’s role in protecting supply chain sensitive data to mitigate cyber risk will be crucial," he explains.

Finally, we asked Vakil to predict what cyber security and the auto industry will look like by 2030.

"Conducting routine supplier cyber security risk assessments will be widespread, allowing organisations to quantify which of their service providers and partners have robust management capabilities versus those that do not. Maintaining these actions in 2030 will be even more fundamental to ensuring the best security capabilities are in place."

"AI systems and processes will continue to grow in influence and popularity throughout every stage of the automaking process all the way through to distribution, but the threat of cyber breaches will also continue to grow, with IoT cyber breaches alone expected to double by 2025," he warns.

"Emerging vectors such as vehicle subscription services - a future source of authentication-related attacks - EV charging networks and infrastructure, as well as fleet management, new insurance models and smart mobility APIs will all face increased vulnerability to cyber attacks. And with the global cyber security market projected to grow from $1.98 billion in 2022 to $6.8 billion by 2030, the desire for a cyber-secure supply chain is a sustained, ongoing one," concludes Vakil.