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My bicycle with cyber connectivity is more cybersecure than US critical infrastructures

Jan. 2, 2025

How a bicycle’s analog odometer could be more secure than critical infrastructures in the U.S.

I have a bicycle with an analog odometer (“cyber unaware”). When the analog odometer failed, I wanted my new odometer to have the capability to monitor elevation which meant I needed a GPS bike computer.

A GPS bike computer is an IOT device that needs to sync to a cell phone making it “cyber aware”. I was concerned about cybersecurity because most GPS bike odometers are made in China. After an extensive search, I found a GPS bike computer that was made in Germany. When I went to the vendor’s website, I found they had a cybersecurity page because the bike odometer has a USB link and needs to be synced to a cell phone.

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That meant the cyber-aware bike computer was addressed by the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) cybersecurity requirements. As a result, my bicycle with cyber connectivity is more cybersecure than U.S. critical infrastructures which have no cybersecurity in process measurements.

About the Author

Joe Weiss | Cybersecurity Contributor

Joe Weiss P.E., CISM, is managing partner of Applied Control Solutions, LLC, in Cupertino, CA. Formerly of KEMA and EPRI, Joe is an international authority on cybersecurity. You can contact him at [email protected]