High-end bicycles used for high-profile road races such as the Tour de France are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks targeting the bike’s wireless gear shifting system.

In recent years, bicycle manufacturers have adopted wireless gear-shifting technology, which gives riders better control over changing gears. The technology is not vulnerable to the physical issues that plague mechanical systems. However, the way the wireless systems were built created critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which a team of computer scientists from the University of California San Diego and Northeastern University have uncovered.