As vehicles, infrastructure, and digital services become increasingly interconnected, cybersecurity can no longer be addressed component by component. Inspired by the latest ENISA NIS360 assessment, this article explores why cybersecurity maturity, validation, and ecosystem-level resilience are becoming essential for the future of connected mobility.
As transport systems become increasingly connected and digitalised, cybersecurity is no longer limited to protecting individual vehicles or isolated infrastructure components. Modern mobility services depend on the secure interaction of vehicles, roadside infrastructure, communication networks, cloud services, and operational platforms.
This growing complexity is reflected in the latest ENISA NIS360 2026 report, which assesses cybersecurity maturity across Europe’s most critical sectors. According to the report, the road transport sector has continued to improve its cybersecurity maturity, driven in part by the automotive industry’s strong practices in governance, cybersecurity risk management, and comprehensive security assessments.
At the same time, ENISA highlights that the increasing connectivity of transport systems is creating new cybersecurity challenges that extend beyond traditional organisational or technological boundaries. Interdependencies between vehicles, infrastructure operators, technology providers, and digital services are becoming increasingly important when assessing cyber risks and resilience.
From vehicles to connected ecosystems
One of the key observations from the ENISA assessment is that road transport is evolving into a highly interconnected ecosystem.
The report highlights the growing deployment of intelligent transport systems, connected vehicle technologies, IoT-based infrastructure, and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. As vehicles become more connected and software-defined, cybersecurity increasingly extends beyond the vehicle itself to include the surrounding digital infrastructure.
This evolution is particularly relevant for electric mobility. Electric vehicles interact with charging infrastructure, backend platforms, fleet management systems, energy networks, and communication protocols that together form a complex digital ecosystem. While these interactions enable more efficient and sustainable mobility services, they also introduce new dependencies and potential attack paths.
The challenge is therefore no longer limited to securing individual assets. It increasingly involves understanding how cyber risks can propagate across multiple interconnected systems and stakeholders.
Why maturity matters
The ENISA report identifies strong cybersecurity governance, risk management practices, and security assessments as key factors supporting the maturity of the automotive sector. At the same time, the report repeatedly highlights the importance of operational preparedness, security testing, incident readiness, and the assessment of whether cybersecurity measures actually work in practice.
This is an important message for the future of connected mobility.
As cybersecurity requirements continue to evolve, organisations must be able not only to identify threats and implement protection measures, but also to evaluate their effectiveness in realistic operating environments. Validation, testing, and resilience assessment therefore become essential elements of cybersecurity engineering.
Relevance for PREVENT
These challenges are closely aligned with the objectives of the PREVENT project as it aims to strengthen cybersecurity across the entire e-mobility ecosystem, addressing interactions between electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, digital services, operators, and energy networks. In its initial phases, the project focuses on refining use cases, defining requirements, analysing threats, and developing the foundations of a secure and resilient architecture.
The project’s system-level perspective reflects a broader trend also highlighted by ENISA: organisations increasingly need to understand cybersecurity not only at component level, but also at ecosystem level, taking into account interdependencies, supply chains, and connections between different actors.
Within PREVENT, AVL-ES contributes expertise in automotive cybersecurity, cybersecurity-aware validation methodologies, threat analysis, and testing approaches for connected and electrified mobility systems. These activities support the project’s objective of developing practical and trustworthy approaches to cybersecurity assessment across future e-mobility environments.
According to the ENISA NIS360 2026 assessment, the road transport sector continues to improve its cybersecurity maturity, supported by strong automotive risk management practices and comprehensive security assessments. As connected mobility ecosystems expand, maintaining that maturity will increasingly depend on collaboration, validation, and ecosystem-level resilience
“As mobility ecosystems become more interconnected, cybersecurity can no longer be addressed vehicle by vehicle. Building trust in future electric mobility services requires understanding, assessing, and validating resilience across the entire ecosystem.”
Alvaro Coupeau – Head of Cybersecurity (AVL Iberica Euskadi)
Conclusion
The latest ENISA NIS360 2026 report provides encouraging evidence that cybersecurity maturity is improving across the European transport sector. At the same time, it highlights the growing complexity of connected mobility systems and the importance of managing cybersecurity beyond traditional organisational boundaries.
As vehicles, infrastructure, digital services, and energy systems become increasingly interconnected, initiatives such as PREVENT will play an important role in supporting secure, resilient, and trustworthy e-mobility ecosystems for the future.
Author: Ander Lopez de Sabando (AVL-ES)
Links
Original source: ENISA NIS360 2026 Report
Project website: PREVENT Project
Additional information: https://www.avl.com/en/cybersecurity
Keywords
Cybersecurity maturity, road transport, connected mobility, e-mobility, automotive cybersecurity, cyber resilience, cybersecurity validation, intelligent transport systems, PREVENT project, electric vehicles
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