The modern car is no longer a standalone asset, but a rolling digital network. By 2030, 95% of all vehicles sold will be connected, underscoring the need for active cybersecurity planning. 

We spoke with Sean Herron, chief information security officer at Samsara, to learn how fleet managers can prepare for a cyber threat before one hits. 

Begin With Identity Management

As fleet technology continues to advance, it also introduces new blind spots that fleet managers have never dealt with before. A common weak point is identity management. 

“Shared credentials, password-based logins on shared devices, API tokens that were never revoked after a vendor relationship ended — these are the kinds of things that create real exposure. And a lack of audit logging creates hidden exposures that overstretched IT teams often miss until a breach occurs,” explained Herron. 

Fleet managers need to actively manage users on all connected vehicle systems to reduce risk and any potential access points. Organizations often scale their systems without scaling their governance, and that increases their vulnerability to a cybersecurity breach.

For cost-constrained fleets, Herron recommends prioritizing dual-value investments, such as automated user lifecycle management via SCIM provisioning and comprehensive audit logging.

Dual value investments are strategic investments meant to support AI- adoption and broader data-driven decision-making. Examples include process and product integration, and data infrastructure and governance.

“Don't build for security in a vacuum. Start with the controls that drive efficiency, then expand,” he added.

As with much of the world of fleet, the key, as Herron puts it, is in the partnership between the vendor and your fleet IT team. The vendors provide the digital infrastructure, and the IT team actively configures and monitors those controls. 

Herron notes that when IT teams treat vendor platforms as a “set and forget” solution, it increases risk. The infrastructure only works if the IT team actively utilizes it. 

How Do I Identify a Breach?

To identify a disruption in a system, you will first need real-time system health monitoring. 

This visibility allows you to respond to threats as they arise, rather than after the fact.

“The real value lies in pairing health data with activity log analysis,” he added. If a disruption is accompanied by unusual configuration changes, unexpected permission modifications, or access patterns that don't fit normal behavior, those are signals that point toward a security issue rather than a simple technical failure.” 

He also notes that a legitimate platform-wide outage looks different from a localized anomaly, so being familiar with how your system looks under normal conditions is central to identifying unusual occurrences.

Three Non-Negotiables

Herron has three non-negotiables for safeguarding connected fleets:

1. Access Governance. SSO with SAML or OAuth, role-based permissions, and automated user lifecycle management to ensure users are provisioned and deprovisioned correctly. Without this, every new integration or new user is an unmanaged risk.
2. Data Security. Encryption is only the starting point. You must govern data egress:  knowing exactly what leaves the platform, where it goes, and who has access to it. Clear data retention policies and export governance controls are vital for maintaining ownership of your data.
3. Auditability. You need to be able to answer "who did what, when, and what changed” not just for compliance, but for your own operational awareness. If you can't trace configuration changes with before-and-after detail, you're flying blind during an incident.

Heron recommends asking vendors for proof of security. You want to see independent third-party validation. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 are the baseline standards for data security in telematics and connected systems. 

As AI becomes a global standard, you want to ensure the vendor also uses the ISO 42001 framework for AI governance. 

ISO 42001 is the world’s first AI management system standard, providing valuable guidance for this rapidly changing field of technology. It addresses the unique challenges AI poses, such as ethical considerations, transparency, and continuous learning.

Aside from that, Herron recommends that fleet managers scrutinize their access management systems, keeping the non-negotiables in mind. 

"A platform that makes governance hard will become a liability regardless of how good its uptime is," he added.