Businessweek, October 17-23 Researchers demonstrate how easy it is to infiltrate automotive computers and gain control of brakes, steering, engine, lights and door locks. Modern automobiles can be infiltrated without going anywhere near them. The Bluetooth connection used in hands free phone systems, telematics like OnStar and SYNC, the keyless entry system and even the tire pressure sensors provide an unsecured entrance to the computers which control the vehicle's basic functions. In one test, testers in San Diego hacked a car in Seattle. They remotely unlocked the doors, started the engine, and sent the car's GPS coordinates to another tester, who drove the car away. The auto industry hopes to soon design security protocols into automotive computers, but every car built since 1996—and especially those with a controller area network, included on every automobile built since 2008—is vulnerable.
Other than the rigged experiment mentioned, I've never heard of any vehicle controls being highjacked electronically. Is this really a solution in search of a problem or a new biz op for entrepreneurial criminals?
I couldn't find the article but from Engineers Can Now Wirelessly Hack Your Car | 80beats | Discover Magazine "In the wrong hands, the technology could certainly be harmful; once a hacker gains access, they can do anything from sabotage brakes to monitor car movements (by forcing the car to send GPS signals). But the engineers say the “wrong†hands wouldn’t have the know-how to undertake these complicated procedures—at least for now. As Stefan Savage, a computer scientist at the University of California, San Diego, told Technology Review: “This took 10 researchers two years to accomplish,†Savage adds. “It’s not something that one guy is going to do in his garage.â€" If it's so easy why isn't it being used on the street? I suspect the BW article is just fear-mongering.
It is. Just because you access the Bluetooth connection on a car doesn't mean you can start it. Hacking CAN-bus isn't particularly scary if it requires someone attaching a wire to your car. I can't see that happening while you are driving down the road. Most of these fear mongering articles fail to explain the details of computer based systems, leading casual readers to assume that everything is somehow linked in some sort of giant Internet. It isn't. Granted, we need to pay more attention to computer security, but as it is cars are fairly secure. Wireless key systems are difficult to hack, and the rest is physically hard to access. I'm not losing any sleep over it. Tom
That's why Starships and Prii need a Command Code access system for external access into the Main Computer Core. We all know what happened to Kahn when Kirk sent Reliant the proper code "16309" ......Drop Shields...... I'm sure Cmdr Doc Willie of the Zhang Heng is all too familier with this concept!
So how do they remotely gain control of brakes and steering? This thing isn't organized at all like my Windoze PC.
For the present, your comments are accurate. However, can some poorly engineered controller on future cars have significant security holes? Surely at some point, the financial pressure to have wireless access for remote auto technician servicing and debug will occur. Combine that with the "safety features" of automatic braking for close object proximity and other driver assistance features, it could happen. Even today I was reading where a "nusiance virus" had gotten into the UAV ground control computers of the Air Force. One hurdle down, just a couple more to go. Also, the STUXNET trojan got into the Iranian U235 centrifuges by transversing all kinds of unknown holes. Are car computer operating systems going to be bug free from day one? To me it's more of a question of "when" rather than "if".
