"Earlier this week, at the Australian Financial Review Cyber Summit, cybersecurity expert Alastair MacGibbon highlighted an alarming national security risk posed by millions of China-manufactured connected devices operating across Australia. He warned that particularly internet-connected electric vehicles (EVs) represent new threat vectors for hybrid warfare operations, one in which he said these vehicles could be transformed into "ticking time bombs." On Tuesday, MacGibbon, former cybersecurity adviser to Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and now chief strategy officer at CyberCX, warned, "Those cars that we talk about, whether they're electric or not, are listening devices, and they're surveillance devices in terms of cameras." But worse, he cautioned, "Take off the safety features of household batteries so that they overcharge. Take off those same safety features for electric vehicles. Just turn them off from the manufacturer so that those vehicles explode. Degrade their ability to drive at peak hour in select cities."
