In most motorsports competitions, the final victory can come down to a narrow margin of time among the group of top contenders. However, any one of them could be denied the victory without even realizing it. What do we mean by that?
The Dakar Rally is one of the most fiercely contested and difficult competitions in motorsports; and yet, unlike the original editions—when the race was launched by Thierry Sabine— drivers no longer rely solely on instinct, orientation, or reading the terrain: they have advanced navigation systems, electronic control units that optimize engine performance, constant communication with their team, and an arsenal of sensors that monitor everything from turbo temperature to tire pressure.
However, that same technology that facilitates survival in the desert—and which is also common in other types of motorsports competitions—opens an unexpected door: the possibility that a cyberattack—or a simple cybersecurity failure—could ruin a driver’s race and, in the worst-case scenario, deprive him of a victory that seemed assured after a year of hard work and preparation.
Although the Dakar Rally does not rely as heavily on real-time telemetry as Formula 1—where lap times are critical and improving them, even by tenths of a second, is essential—the digitization of the vehicles and the organization itself has grown exponentially. And with it, the attack vectors—that is, the “gateways” through which one of these cyberattacks can be carried out.