Cybersecurity Risks: What Fleet Operators Need to Know

Summary: Cybersecurity attacks have the potential to take down whole systems of operations for days or weeks, meaning a loss of revenue, exposure of private data, and even a risk to the safety of your drivers. Many fleets are not aware of the vulnerabilities in their fleet operations. Understanding these and fortifying them can help build resilience and establish a more secure fleet operation.

As a cybersecurity professional, I've sat in enough post-incident reviews to recognize a pattern. The attack wasn't sophisticated. The attacker didn't need to be. They walked in through a door the organization didn't know was open. 

In telematics, there are a lot of open doors.

Late 2024 was a wake-up call for the commercial trucking industry. A UK telematics provider went down mid-operation — real-time tracking, fuel management, route optimization — all of it disrupted for fleets that had no fallback plan. Not long after, a US-based ELD provider got hit by ransomware and stayed down for weeks. Then, the same vendor got hit again — this time losing over 70 terabytes of IoT data. 

These weren't edge cases. They were a preview.

The modern fleet telematics stack is genuinely complex: firmware running on hardware you don't manufacture, APIs feeding data into platforms you don't fully control, mobile apps on devices your drivers carry everywhere. You’re dealing with cloud dashboards your operations team accesses from anywhere and a supply chain of sub-vendors you've probably never audited. Every one of those layers is an attack surface. Most organizations are only securing one or two of them.

Here's where I see the real exposure:

1. Firmware

Firmware is the layer nobody wants to think about. The telematics control unit in each vehicle may be running software that hasn't been patched since deployment. It sits below your endpoint tools, often entirely below your visibility. And if it touches the vehicle's CAN bus — the internal network that controls physical systems — a compromise isn't just a data problem. Researchers have demonstrated remote exploitation of TCUs to manipulate vehicle functions. 

The fix isn't complicated: 

• Demand a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) from your hardware vendors to support rapid identification of vulnerabilities
• Require Over-the-Air (OTA) update capabilities to enable remote improvements, security patches, and bug fixes wirelessly via Wi-Fi or cellular networks
• Treat every device as an untrusted endpoint

2. APIs

APIs are the circulatory system of your fleet platform, and they are chronically under-secured. The Subaru STARLINK vulnerability discovered in late 2024 gave researchers unrestricted access to vehicle systems across three countries through a single API flaw. 

I see the same class of issues in fleet environments constantly — unauthenticated endpoints leftover from testing, with no rate limiting, and tokens with far too much privilege. You likely don't own the API; you just consume it. That means your vendor's API security posture is part of your fleet’s attack surface, whether you acknowledge it or not.

3. Cloud Dashboards

Cloud dashboards hold your crown jewels — location data, driver behavior, ELD records, often HR and financial data too. And they're frequently protected by shared credentials, no MFA, and access roles nobody has reviewed in two years. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), driver behavioral and location data are categorized as sensitive personal data. A misconfigured dashboard isn't just an operational risk. It's a regulatory one.

4. Supply Chain

Supply chain is the risk that keeps me up at night, because it's the one you have the least control over. When that US telematics provider went down in 2024, the operators who depended on it had no warning and no contingency plan. One vendor's ransomware infection became dozens of fleets' operational crises. Ask yourself: If your primary telematics provider went offline for 72 hours starting tomorrow, what would your plan be? If you don't have a clear answer, that's the gap to close first.

Trucking’s Current and Future Regulations

The regulatory environment is catching up fast. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are developing cybersecurity standards for commercial vehicle telematics. The EU's WP.29 regulations already require manufacturers to implement formal Cybersecurity Management Systems. This is moving from best practice to compliance obligation — and the gap between where most fleets are today and where regulators are heading is significant.

The telematics industry has built remarkable capability. My concern isn't the technology — it's that the security architecture supporting it has not kept pace with the threat environment. 

Connectivity without security isn't an advantage. It's exposure at scale. Fleet operators who treat this seriously now will build resilient operations. Those who wait will read about themselves in next year's incident report.

Related Reading: Keeping Your Fleet Safe from Cyber Attacks

How Platform Science is protecting its partners against cyberattacks

Platform Science has built defense security measures into its hardware, software, and infrastructure to reduce potential vulnerabilities, including: 

• Regular third-party penetration testing
• Scanning of software updates prior to release for vulnerabilities and security risks
• Constant security scanning of live infrastructure for intrusion detection and anomalous activity 
• Multiple overlapping security layers between the tablet, the ELD, and the truck
• Mobile device management to prevent device compromises
• Signed firmware in our tablet and CVD, among other protections

We also work very closely with our OEM partners, their security protocols, and with all the security protections their vehicles provide. Additionally, we proactively monitor, test, and evaluate potential security threats. Finally, Platform Science is SOC 2 Type 2 certified as well as ISO 27001 certified.

Related reading: Why ISO 27001 Certification is Key for Fleet Management Softwar‍Contact Platform Science today to learn more about how our fleet tools can optimize your operations and improve your cybersecurity.