Sept 18 2024 – The VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry) recently published a position paper highlighting the need for legal certainty in cybersecurity tests. As vehicles become increasingly digital and connected, cybersecurity has become a critical concern for automakers. The VDA’s position paper addresses the complex regulatory landscape surrounding cybersecurity testing and calls for a clearer legal framework to ensure that such tests can be conducted effectively and safely.
While the automotive industry is obliged to identify and eliminate cybersecurity gaps in their products through testing, the current German law puts specialists commissioned with this task and self-motivated security researchers at risk of making themselves liable to prosecution. The primary goal of this paper is to revise the respective regulatory requirements in German criminal law – the Hacker Paragraph - to ensure the legal certainty of everyone involved in ensuring the security of products. This is especially true for testers with a good intention who test systems to identify potential weaknesses to increase overall resilience.
Continental strives to achieve high quality of products where cybersecurity-resilience is a major pillar in our hyper-connected world. Consequently, we strongly support the efforts of the VDA position paper towards the crucial update of regulatory conditions.
