Connected technology gives fleets visibility, efficiency, and real-time insight. But as trucks evolve into rolling networks, cyber criminals are evolving alongside them.
On a recent episode of Fleet Maintenance’s On The Road, Joe Ohr, chief operating officer of the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc.® (NMFTA)®, and Todd Florence, chief information officer at Estes Express Lines, about findings from NMFTA’s 2026 Transportation Industry Cybersecurity Trends Report. Their message is direct: it is not a matter of if fleets will need to address cyber risk. It’s a matter of when.
Modern trucks are layered technology platforms. Florence outlined embedded OEM devices in the cab, onboard computers connected to ELDs, tablets that manage driver applications, connected cameras, and trailers equipped with GPS, tire pressure monitoring, and ABS systems.
“There’s no shortage of sensors and connectivity on these vehicles on the road anymore,” Florence said. Each of those systems creates another potential entry point. Ohr pointed specifically to ELDs.
“With the ELDs, one of the things is that it’s where the drivers a lot of times use it to communicate,” Ohr said. “A lot of those have Wi-Fi capabilities. A lot of those have Bluetooth capabilities, and they may not be managed by the IT team. So a lot of times those slip through the cracks.”
Even as carriers and OEMs invest more in security, the threat landscape continues to evolve.
“Nobody was talking about LLMs two years ago,” Florence said. “The threat actors have access to all of that stuff. The tools available to the threat actors are just much more powerful than they used to be.”
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