Cyber security specialist says F1 vulnerable to attacks

Acronis CEO and Toro Rosso sponsor Serguei Beloussov believes the global threat to cyber security could one day hit Formula 1.

Acronis is a data support and protection business with millions of personal consumers and 500,000 companies using its technology in over 145 countries, offering services such as cloud security, data backup and recovery support.

In an interview with F1 journalist James Allen, the Russian executive, who has a PhD in physics and sits on the board of directors at the Russian Quantum Center, believes its only a matter of time before a Formula 1 team is the victim of a security attack.

"I am surprised there are very little security concerns in Formula 1, so somehow I guess Formula 1 is not a big target, for now," Beloussov said.

" It is surprising for me because I am very familiar with the underworld of computer security and everybody is a target. For example, us, we get security attacks every day [as do] Microsoft, Google, anybody."

Data flow, sensors and computing are obviously an incredibly important part of F1 technology but Beloussov is adamant the barriers of protection could be breached very easily.

"It is relatively easy to attack sensors (on cars). I technically and mechanically understand how to do it and I’m surprised that nobody hacks in.

"I’m on the white side of this, but I think it will be a concern and there are definitely [needs for] encryption and protection of data to make it better for Toro Rosso and hopefully for other teams.

"But protecting their networks and protecting their systems, I think that should also be a concern [for the teams] and it is not right now."

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