Colorado State University researchers have found that ELDs are “potential cybersecurity threat vectors” and there is an urgent need to make them more secure.

Researchers Jake Jepson, Rik Chatterjee and Jeremy Daily uncovered ELD vulnerabilities that could lead to unauthorized control of vehicle systems and data, as well as widespread fleet disruptions. Product designers, programmers, engineers and consumers should raise awareness of these vulnerabilities and encourage development of safer ELDs, their February paper says.

The United States has 14 million medium- and heavy-duty trucks on the road, many of which are required to use ELDs to track truckers’ driving time and ensure compliance with hours-of-service regulations. The devices acquire data by communicating with the vehicle’s engine control module through the vehicle network.

This technology is vulnerable to “truck-to-truck worms,” self-replicating malware that autonomously propagates across a network. Traditionally, these “worms” have targeted computer network systems, but in an age of increased connectivity of systems, technology like ELDs carries a risk of being hacked, the researchers discovered.