Brake Must Be Put On Threat To Car Security
On The Sunday before last, cars started behaving bizarrely in a Manchester car park.
Some people returning to their vehicles could not unlock them, others leaving their limos were unable to lock up.
One by one, car alarms started to go off.
To see this, as filmed by a passer-by, search You Tube for ‘zwan shoppers.’
Crooks had deployed a hi-tech jamming device with a view to having drivers think they had locked their cars when they had not.
Fortunately, they got it wrong.
This, though, is just one reason for growing concern about the risks of electronics being overridden in increasingly computerised cars.
Late last year, BMW needed to issue a security fix to its ConnectedDrive software, which allows cars to be opened by smartphone, because a flaw allowing hackers to unlock the doors had been found.
Even more alarming, pop ‘digital carjackers’ into YouTube to see what happened when security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek reverse-engineered the IT in a Prius.
Watch them then override the brakes, horn and steering wheel, whilst sat in the back with a laptop.
Imagine what someone with malicious intent could do with that capability when sat in the car in front!
This explains why BT launched an automotive arm to its BT assure Ethical Hacking service last month, to help the motor industry find vulnerabilities in their vehicle computers before the villains do.
The manufacturers are designing WiFi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth and other wireless technologies into their cars and commercial vehicles to add consumer value.
However, the risk of simultaneously designing in serious risks to security, and even to personal safety, are not insignificant.
