Are the hackers after your car?
Think about a nice pleasant weekend drive in the country, suddenly ruined because a hacker has taken control of your car, put on the brakes, locked the doors and windows, and started blowing the horn.
That’s not as far-fetched as it might sound. More and more of your car’s systems are being controlled by increasingly powerful on-board computers, and more and more manufacturers are making plans to connect your car to the Internet. That mixture could be a major recipe for trouble; if you’re on the net, you’re hackable. Scientists have already proven that all this is possible, under conditions they carefully controlled. All we need now is a hacker to pave the way under field conditions and we have what could be a considerable, and sizable, situation.
A story on CNET details some of the possible problems of this issue, and finds that they are indeed significant. A couple of researchers from the University of South Carolina, as an example, were able to activate and deactivate the tire pressure warning lights on passing cars from over 100 feet away, using very low-cost equipment. Says one of them, “While spoofing low-tire-pressure readings does not appear to be critical at first, it will lead to a dashboard warning and will likely cause the driver to pull over and inspect the tire. This presents ample opportunities for mischief and criminal activities, if past experience is any indication.”
If that sort of system can be controlled so easily, why not the brakes, steering, and engine systems? Everybody wants to be connected to the Internet, but if you have ever had a major computer virus or known anyone that had their identity stolen, you can easily see the problem. It is a matter of security, more than anything else and that seems to be almost completely lacking at this point. With on-board systems being boosted for entertaining the kiddies in the back seat and systems like GM’s OnStar to watch over your vehicle, it is clear that the car is becoming a very large personal computer, with all of the dangers and ills that status carries with it.
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