VicOne report finds automotive cyber incidents tripled

Cross-region, multi-business cyber incidents in the automotive sector more than tripled in 2025, according to VicOne’s 2026 Automotive Cybersecurity Report. The cybersecurity firm recorded 161 such incidents out of 610 total cases, attributing the increase to centralised software platforms and over-the-air update infrastructures that amplify the impact of security failures across subsidiaries and regions.

The report found that 33% of observed cyber risk now directly impacts driver-facing systems, increasing customer exposure and brand trust implications. VicOne said attacks now routinely span enterprise IT, cloud services, and in-vehicle systems simultaneously, describing this convergence as the “Overlap Era.”

In a statement, Max Cheng, Chief Executive of VicOne, said: “In the Overlap Era, vehicles, cloud platforms, and enterprise IT systems function as a single operational fabric. Governing these environments as isolated silos is no longer sustainable. Cybersecurity has become a board-level accountability issue.”

The report also identified electric vehicle charging infrastructure as a growing source of exposure, as chargers connect vehicles, backend services, mobile applications, and power grids. VicOne noted that while regulations such as UN R155 and ISO/SAE 21434 have raised baseline cybersecurity maturity, domain-specific compliance alone cannot address cross-platform risk propagation in modern software-defined vehicle architectures.

Source: VicOne