The danger sleeping in our pockets – Is excessive comfort a national security issue?

“Open it, close it… Give it two punches on the right side, it’ll be fine…” Aren’t these phrases very familiar to those of us who have aged a bit? It is the most effective solution method we learned from our elders for every type of electrical device in our homes. However, it didn’t seem to work very well in Russia. Although it didn’t find much echo due to the fan(tastic) news in our country, the fact that hundreds of Porsche vehicles became inoperable at the same time on November 28, 2025, was presented on the surface as a technical malfunction. Yet, this incident is a concrete indicator of the point modern transportation technologies have reached and the national security vulnerability at this point. With satellite-connected alarm and control modules locking the engine, the vehicles were effectively disabled. This situation clearly revealed that automobiles are no longer mechanical systems, but software platforms that can be managed remotely.

Today, automobiles are mobile digital systems that operate with over-the-air updates, centralized software architectures, telemetry, and remote access capabilities. While this structure provides comfort and efficiency, it also creates an extremely dangerous vulnerability, such as the ability to be intervened with from a single point. The fact that hundreds of vehicles in a country become unusable simultaneously is not an individual grievance; this situation carries the nature of a direct alarm in terms of urban security, public order, and crisis management.

The number of electric and hybrid vehicles worldwide has exceeded 40 million. In Turkey, this number has reached the hundreds of thousands, concentrated especially in large cities. However, this increase is not progressing in parallel with infrastructure and security debates. Electric vehicles are not just means of transportation; they are mobile energy storage units with high energy density that are parked in enclosed spaces. This fact is being explained to the public, but there is a persistent attempt not to understand it.

History has clearly shown how software can affect the physical world. Stuxnet, which emerged in 2010, targeted centrifuges in Iran; the systems were directed to self-destruct without the operators being aware. This incident proved that cyber intervention is not limited to stealing data, but can render physical systems dysfunctional and dangerous.

A similar warning was given with the pager device incidents in Lebanon on September 17–18, 2024. Thousands of communication devices used by Hezbollah members were detonated simultaneously; many people lost their lives or were seriously injured. This incident, where even simple-looking electronic devices could cause fatal results through remote intervention, showed how thin the line between technology and security has become.

Lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles are a separate risk area in this framework. High energy density, cell-based chain reactions, and uncontrolled heat rise put these systems in a completely different category from classic vehicle fires. Such incidents can lead to long-lasting, difficult-to-extinguish results with exponentially increasing environmental impacts in enclosed spaces. What is more critical is that all of these batteries are managed by software. Charging limits, temperature thresholds, and emergency cut-off mechanisms are digital. Sensor deception, software errors, or external intervention can drive the system into an unstable state in seconds.

In Turkey, shopping malls, underground parking lots, residences, and collective living spaces are not ready for these scenarios. Ventilation systems, emergency evacuation plans, capacity to intervene in thermal events, and fire department integration are largely based on the assumption of classic vehicles. The concentration of high-energy electric vehicles in enclosed spaces is an overlooked but growing security vulnerability.

The Porsche case in Russia is therefore not ordinary. If vehicles can be stopped remotely today, tomorrow they could be overloaded, locked, detonated (thermal runaway event), or forced into risky operating conditions. Thousands of vehicles becoming uncontrollable in a city at the same time is no longer a traffic problem, but a national security scenario.

Recent increases in aircraft and helicopter accidents also point to a similar reality. This issue, which should be evaluated independently of conspiracy theories, shows that the rising level of automation in aviation, sensor dependency, and software complexity are pushing the limits of human decision-making. Behind many incidents dismissed with the label of “pilot error” lie systems that humans cannot control.

The conclusion is clear: Connected vehicles and high-energy technologies are not just symbols of progress. When not audited and not handled from a security perspective, they are systems that have the potential to spiral out of control. The public must now face these questions, and necessary security measures must be taken by the authorities without delay:

Do we have control over the key sleeping in our pockets? Is excessive comfort a security issue?

News Source: 12punto