Transportation security in the era of autonomous vehicles: Challenges and practice

The Transportation Sector is one of the Critical Infrastructure Sectors identified by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Developing robust, secure, and resilient designs for Transportation Sector components is particularly challenging since it requires significant, real-time coordination with automotive, marine, and aviation systems that are themselves undergoing transformative changes in electronic complexity. In this paper we provide a general overview of security challenges in the Transportation Sector, focusing in particular the Highways and Roadways sub-sector. We discuss current and emergent challenges in this area arising as a result of increased autonomy (and hence complexity) of automotive systems, and point out key research needs.