Does Your Car Have Security Risks?
By Ian Scott
Imagine driving along the road and discovering you were slowing down but your foot is not on the brake pedal. Yesterday, you had a new audio player installed.
Could someone be hijacking your car? According to researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, it is possible. They apparently discovered that it was quite easy to hack the computer systems in vehicles and subject them to a variety of attacks.
Another possible car hijack method could be used with GM’s “OnStar” service:
“In our car we identified no fewer than five kinds of digital radio interfaces accepting outside input, some over only a short range and others over indefinite distance. While outside the scope of this paper, we wish to be clear that vulnerabilities in such services are not purely theoretical. We have developed the ability to remotely compromise key ECUs in our car via externally-facing vulnerabilities, amplify the impact of these remote compromises using the results in this paper, and ultimately monitor and control our car remotely over the Internet.”
Ah, almost makes one long for the good old days when just about anyone with some tools could diagnose and fix their own engine problems.
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