Ford Motor Company, founded in 1903 and led by CEO Jim Farley, is a global automotive manufacturer with over a century of operational history. The company has built its legacy on internal combustion vehicles but is now executing a significant technical pivot toward electric and connected vehicle platforms. This transformation requires securing increasingly software-defined automobiles against a threat landscape that includes over-the-air update integrity, vehicle-to-infrastructure communication vulnerabilities, and the attack surface expansion that comes with digital connectivity at scale.
The company's technical domains span connected vehicles, electric vehicle engineering, automotive software development, and digital transformation initiatives across its manufacturing operations. Ford produces vehicles with embedded connectivity features and is rebuilding its product line around electric powertrains while maintaining legacy automotive icons. The security implications are substantial: modern vehicles are networks on wheels, with dozens of electronic control units, telematics systems, and cloud-connected services that require defense-in-depth strategies against both remote and physical attacks.
Ford operates through global teams with headquarters in the United States, managing security across distributed manufacturing facilities, supply chain partners, and connected vehicle fleets already on the road. The scale challenge is considerable - the company notes its work affects millions of lives daily, which translates to millions of potential endpoints requiring monitoring, patch management, and incident response capabilities. The company's stated focus on sustainable manufacturing and mobility services adds additional complexity around operational technology security and third-party integration risk.