Cybersecurity Expert to Discuss Future of Autonomous Vehicles on Wednesday

One of the country’s top experts in cybersecurity is scheduled to discuss the burgeoning technology of autonomous vehicles, as well as their vast implications for society, at a virtual Rotary Club event on Wednesday.

Erik Laykin, managing director and founder of the Global Data Risk Practice at the international consulting firm Duff & Phelps LLC, is scheduled to provide the online presentation “The Future of Personal Transportation: The Autonomous Vehicle” at noon, according to the Rotary Club of Pasadena. The meeting will be hosted online via Zoom and will be free and open to the public, organizers said.

“The promise of autonomous vehicles is wide, and it really will have an impact on society as a whole,” Laykin said.

Not only will they free up time that would otherwise be spent driving and vastly change the landscape of transportation-related businesses, but they will lead to a change in the way in which cities are designed.

As self-driving cars rise, Laykin said he predicts a fall-off in personal vehicle ownership. Most vehicles will be owned by companies in something resembling a rideshare-style operation in which the cars drive themselves.

Infrastructure will be reworked, as the need for parking spaces, lots, and structures disappears, he said.

Speeding tickets and parking citations will become a thing of the past as the auto insurance industry is forced to adapt to the advent of driverless cars, according to Laykin.

“You will really have these fundamental shifts in societal norms and infrastructure,” he said.

But like with any computer network, security is “a critical component,” Laykin said.

Measures must be put into place, potentially through national standards, to ensure bad actors cannot take control of vehicles.

Even simple errors could involve dire consequences, such as a child being dropped off at an incorrect location, he explained.

Contemplating problems and risks that have been thought of is “kind of exciting,” Laykin said.

Some jobs, like truck and taxi drivers, will likely vanish, he said. But others will spring up in support of the new autonomous transportation system, ranging from engineering and programming to security, both physical and digital, hospitality, advertising, and more.

“I think that the future holds tremendous promise in so many areas as it relates to the transportation space,” Laykin said.

“I don’t think we should be afraid of the future, and we’re certainly nostalgic for things, but the reality is we’re going into a new world,” he said.

Laykin is “one of the nation’s leading experts in cybersecurity, insider threat, and computer forensic investigations,” the Rotary Club said in a written statement. “His cases have included the largest bankruptcy in history, Lehman Brothers, and the largest trade secret case in history, Google (Waymo) v. Uber.”

He was an early pioneer in the field of cybersecurity in the 1990s, founding the first computer forensics laboratories in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Hong Kong, where he “developed cutting edge investigative techniques on behalf of multinational law firms and corporations that are still employed today,” according to the Rotary Club.

Laykin serves as chair of the American Bar Association Computer Forensic Expert Witness Committee, as well as president of the Forensic Expert Witness Association. He formerly serves as president and Pacific Rim director of the FBI’s Infragard program.

Wednesday’s Zoom meeting can be accessed at us02web.zoom.us/j/86287855806?pwd=WUJBY0RGdjV2UUpLWXlRTWpWS1Vldz09, using Meeting ID 862 8785 5806 and Password 994656.

More information is available on the website of the Rotary Club of Pasadena at pasadenarotary.com.