Commerce Department to Investigate Foreign Governments’ Reach Into Data Used by Connected Vehicles

The Department of Commerce is seeking public feedback on regulating the information and communications technology and services supply chain for connected vehicles.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the department is issuing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to take a deeper look into the national security risks associated with connected vehicles, including investigating the extent of foreign governments’ reach in accessing information used by connected vehicles.

According to the ANPR released on Thursday, the decision to secure the ICT supply chain comes from the potential threat of malicious actors tampering with safeguards protocols present in the vehicles, Commerce .gov reported.

China has been challenging U.S. dominance on the international stage. Jennifer Ewbank, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency for Digital Innovation, said, “China presents the broadest, most sophisticated, most persistent, most pervasive cyberespionage threat to U.S. government and private sector networks in America.”

In December 2023, to ensure that the U.S. remains on top of every China-related situation, Raimondo called for a bigger allocation to ensure high-end chips used for training military artificial intelligence do not reach China.