Communications of the ACM
Networked Cars Are Coming, but Their Hacks Are Already Here
Connected-vehicle technology will facilitate collision avoidance, but creates security vulnerabilities as well.
Credit: U.S. Department of Transportation
Concurrent with a new push for connected-vehicle technology to facilitate collision avoidance is an emphasis on its potential security vulnerabilities. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has called on federal agencies to establish a foundation for all highway vehicles to eventually be outfitted with this technology, which would tap the vehicle's onboard computers to transmit data such as its orientation, speed, and location anonymously to all other vehicles in a certain range through Wi-Fi-like signals.
A prototype of this system reportedly is undergoing testing in Michigan, but white-hat hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek have disclosed their success in attacking critical automotive systems in the Ford Escape and Toyota Prius via the vehicles' computers. Although they executed these attacks with a laptop that was physically wired into the car's system, previous research has demonstrated that remote access is possible through existing car communications systems.
Researchers successfully breached vehicles' systems using Bluetooth and cellular phone networks two years ago, and they warned that "an adversary could use such means to compromise a vehicle's systems and install code that takes action immediately (such as unlocking doors) or in response to some environmental trigger (the time of day, speed, or location as exported via the onboard [global positioning system])."
From Discover
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found