At Def Con convention this week in Las Vegas, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek will publish their 100-page white paper outlining their techniques for hacking the internal systems in the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape. They will also release the software they created for hacking cars’ braking, acceleration and maneuvering systems. The good news is to use their intrusion methods; you would have to be inside the vehicle to access these systems. The bad news is all new cars are being built with advanced computing technology ripe for this kind of hacks and this is not the first time white hats have attacked the auto industry. Going back to 2010, a group of U.S. computer scientists showed they can damage cars using a virus and the onboard Bluetooth and wireless systems.
The auto industry is taking this very seriously – though Toyota and Ford were quick to point out that drivers would likely notice if their cars had been physically tampered with, as Miller and Valasek’s hack requires. The US government is also showing concern and have started an auto cybersecurity research program at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. One challenge from a higher level will be the fact that each automaker is taking their own approach to a smarter car. From The Uconnect Access found in the Dodge Viper to the Linux-powered CUE installed in the Cadillac XT to products from companies like Microsoft, Sprint, Verizon, Cisco, QNX and Genivi, the market of onboard car computing is fragmented and will most likely only get more disjointed before it solidifies to a few standard offerings.
The lines of where traditional mechanical devices end and technology begins is getting blurrier each day and the idea of self-driving cars is slowly becoming a reality with items like Volvo’s self-parking cars and INIRIX’s real time traffic analysis and mapping. As we speed toward smarter cars, the need for secure sub systems is becoming more important while the market continues to become more fractured. Are you ready to let go of the wheel?