Alex Lye, president of the International Association of Automotive Theft Investigators, Malaysia, said the current standard would result in the ease of vehicle thefts, especially with connected vehicles set to be more widely used in the future.

He said connected vehicles would comprise 86% of the global market by 2025.

However, the MS 1742 security standard adopted in 2014 was conceived hastily by the government and relied on other standards that were already 10 years old at the time, he said.

“MS 1742 was conceived by a few people who ‘cut and paste’ requirements from other standards,” he said. “These people failed to note that the copied standards were not relevant in 2004.”

Lye said internet-connected vehicles and autonomous vehicles collected vast amounts of data, which were a high-value target for cyber threats.

The safety and security of road users would be directly impacted, he said.

He said 4,118 vehicles were stolen in India due to cheap security in 2020 while a Tesla X luxury electric car was reported to have been hacked and stolen within minutes using the firmware in the key hob in November.

Lye said Malaysia should adhere to international cybersecurity standards to further reduce vehicle theft and “let experts handle it, not politicians”.

As cybersecurity is still relatively new, he said, Malaysia could emulate practices adopted by most European Union countries, particularly Germany, and Japan.