As an essential component of the Internet of Things (IoT), connected vehicles refer to applications, services, and technologies that connect a vehicle to its surroundings. A typical connected vehicle not only enables in-vehicle connectivity, for example on-board devices, but also allows a vehicle to connect to external devices, networks, or even services and applications such as traffic safety and efficiency, entertainment, and remote diagnostics.

With vehicles becoming more sophisticated and communication technologies like 5G providing high-bandwidth and low-latency networks, connected vehicle technology is expected to become a fundamental component of automated driving. This could drastically improve the convenience and security of driving by decreasing the burden on drivers and reducing traffic accidents. However, the fast development of connected vehicle technology also faces various new security threats. For example, on-board devices like sensors in vehicles could be attacked or compromised, the in-vehicle access and control systems may be broken, and both in-vehicle and inter-vehicle communications could be intervened and controlled. All of these threats present critical security flaws to connected vehicles, consequently causing incidents or potentially even death.

The objective of this Special Issue is to explore security threats to connected vehicles, as well as new techniques and designs related to defense against those threats, to push forward the frontier and future development of secure connected vehicles. We hope to bring together leading researchers and developers to present their latest research in different topics relating to the security of connected vehicles. Both original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Security threats to on-board devices embedded in vehicles and to in/inter-vehicle communications
• Defenses for on-board devices embedded in vehicles and in/inter-vehicle communications
• Authorization, authentication, and access control for connected vehicles
• Privacy techniques for connected vehicles
• Vulnerability detection and prevention techniques for connected vehicles
• Light-weight encryption and signature schemes for connected vehicles
• Blockchain-based solutions for connected vehicle security
• Artificial intelligence (AI)-based security solutions for connected vehicles
• Security and privacy in edge computing-based connected vehicles
• Security and privacy in connected vehicle applications/services
• Trust management in connected vehicles