What If Your Car Computer System Is Remotely Car Hacked?

[JurisA]

While it may sound like science fiction to some, being car hacked might just be one of the first high-tech crimes to hit the expressway, reports Discover Magazine. With some knowledge of a modern vehicle's computer system, a wireless Internet connection and also the right software, hackers just may be able to take control of a vehicle's functions from afar. This means they can activate or deactivate lights, brakes, the accelerator and – within the most extreme cases – even directional control of the vehicle. The laundry list of potential trouble that could come from such a situation boggles the mind.

Article Resource: Can a vehicle’s computer system be remotely car hacked

Consider the nightmare of being car hacked

Imagine what it might feel like to be car hacked.

You're in gridlock, with only the stereo of your brand new, auto loan-financed to ease your weary mind. Within sight, a Wi-Fi connected hacker with smart phone has you in his sights. The hacker scopes your vehicle's computer system, sends the command and forces your car to accelerate into the rear bumper of a metallic gold BMW a couple of feet in front of you. That's a step beyond dealing with a sticky gas pedal, and researcher Stefan Savage insists that such a scenario could happen. This is because a smart car's electronic control units (ECUs) are the nerve network of a car. BBC News indicates that there's lots of data – 100 megs worth – spread across a common smart car's ECUs. As Discovery Magazine reports, that gives hackers numerous points of entry.

Savage and the ways of the CarShark

Savage's CarShark software demonstrated just how easy it can be to remotely gain access to car functions. For instance, common modern automobile computer systems like Electronic Stability Control and Active Cruise Control connect directly to brakes, accelerators, wheels and automated parallel parking. Hackers can flood those systems with dummy packets of data and lock them down, opening the way to send their own commands independent of the driver. While this isn't easy to achieve, a sophisticated car hacking expert could gain access. Hackers will always search for new methods to cause mischief if they are sufficiently motivated, but it is clear that automakers must take action to secure car computer systems. car hacked single-owner automobiles are one thing, but hackers could go on to a lot more sophisticated public transport possibilities like "road trains" and cause hellacious damage.

Car hacking is not all death and destruction

Stefan Savage points to the darkest aspects of car hacking, but Discovery points out that you will find lighter uses for the digital watusi. Wired writes of an Austin, Texas car dealer who used car hacking to harass dead beat customers. Firing the horns and lights were the dealer's little way of making dead beats take notice. Nevertheless, one employee went so far as to disable 100 cars. The offending employee was fired, but what of those automakers who don't patch the holes that make car hacking possible within the first place? They don't face the exact same scrutiny.

Citations

Discover Magazine

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/05/18/forget-car-jacking-car-hacking-is-the-crime-of-the-future/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/11/11/in-the-commute-of-the-future-drivers-can-let-a-pro-take-the-wheel/

[RowdyRebel]

While it may sound like science fiction to some, being car hacked might just be one of the first high-tech crimes to hit the expressway, reports Discover Magazine. With some knowledge of a modern vehicle's computer system, a wireless Internet connection and also the right software, hackers just may be able to take control of a vehicle's functions from afar. This means they can activate or deactivate lights, brakes, the accelerator and – within the most extreme cases – even directional control of the vehicle. The laundry list of potential trouble that could come from such a situation boggles the mind.

Article Resource: Can a vehicle’s computer system be remotely car hacked

Consider the nightmare of being car hacked

Imagine what it might feel like to be car hacked.

You're in gridlock, with only the stereo of your brand new, auto loan-financed to ease your weary mind. Within sight, a Wi-Fi connected hacker with smart phone has you in his sights. The hacker scopes your vehicle's computer system, sends the command and forces your car to accelerate into the rear bumper of a metallic gold BMW a couple of feet in front of you. That's a step beyond dealing with a sticky gas pedal, and researcher Stefan Savage insists that such a scenario could happen. This is because a smart car's electronic control units (ECUs) are the nerve network of a car. BBC News indicates that there's lots of data – 100 megs worth – spread across a common smart car's ECUs. As Discovery Magazine reports, that gives hackers numerous points of entry.

Savage and the ways of the CarShark

Savage's CarShark software demonstrated just how easy it can be to remotely gain access to car functions. For instance, common modern automobile computer systems like Electronic Stability Control and Active Cruise Control connect directly to brakes, accelerators, wheels and automated parallel parking. Hackers can flood those systems with dummy packets of data and lock them down, opening the way to send their own commands independent of the driver. While this isn't easy to achieve, a sophisticated car hacking expert could gain access. Hackers will always search for new methods to cause mischief if they are sufficiently motivated, but it is clear that automakers must take action to secure car computer systems. car hacked single-owner automobiles are one thing, but hackers could go on to a lot more sophisticated public transport possibilities like "road trains" and cause hellacious damage.

Car hacking is not all death and destruction

Stefan Savage points to the darkest aspects of car hacking, but Discovery points out that you will find lighter uses for the digital watusi. Wired writes of an Austin, Texas car dealer who used car hacking to harass dead beat customers. Firing the horns and lights were the dealer's little way of making dead beats take notice. Nevertheless, one employee went so far as to disable 100 cars. The offending employee was fired, but what of those automakers who don't patch the holes that make car hacking possible within the first place? They don't face the exact same scrutiny.

Citations

Discover Magazine

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/05/18/forget-car-jacking-car-hacking-is-the-crime-of-the-future/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/11/11/in-the-commute-of-the-future-drivers-can-let-a-pro-take-the-wheel/

GM's Onstar allows remote access to your cars computer in order to unlock the doors, blink the brake lights, or disable the vehicle.

Ford has a "parallel parking assist" that gives the car's computer steering control (although the driver still has to shift the transmission and work the pedals).

Adaptive Cruise Control w/ Brake Assist will alter the speed the cruise control is set at, and will even apply the brakes to slow the vehicle if it is approaching traffic ahead too quickly.

Computers are doing more and more, allowing less qualified drivers to operate the vehicle with greater ease, while devoting even LESS of their attention on the road conditions around them.

Hell, if I had the knowledge on how exactly to do it, I'd hack into the car's ahead of me to get them out of my way. Use other people's cars as bulldozers to clear a path for me to squeeze through. I hate sitting in traffic, but don't want to tear up my own ride.

I'll never buy a GM because of Onstar. I won't buy a new Ford if equipped with any of the "let the car drive for you" features (including automatic transmissions....I hate them). I'm a driver...it's what I do. I don't need no stinkin' computer to help me get where I'm going. Pi$$es me off that Ford is getting rid of the manual transmission option in the 2011 F250/350's like they did with the 150 in '04. Guess I won't be buying a new Ford truck, either. That hurts, but my preference to the manual transmission goes much farther than my loyalty to the blue oval. I'd rather drive a Dodge with a manual shift than a Ford with an automatic. When I can no longer find used Fords with manual shifts and I have to buy new, it won't be Ford unless they come to their senses and nix their plan to discontinue offering the manual transmission. I'm the driver, I'll drive the vehicle.

[ThaddeusW]

While it may sound like science fiction to some, being car hacked might just be one of the first high-tech crimes to hit the expressway, reports Discover Magazine. With some knowledge of a modern vehicle's computer system, a wireless Internet connection and also the right software, hackers just may be able to take control of a vehicle's functions from afar. This means they can activate or deactivate lights, brakes, the accelerator and – within the most extreme cases – even directional control of the vehicle. The laundry list of potential trouble that could come from such a situation boggles the mind.

Article Resource: Can a vehicle's computer system be remotely car hacked

Consider the nightmare of being car hacked

Imagine what it might feel like to be car hacked.

You're in gridlock, with only the stereo of your brand new, auto loan-financed to ease your weary mind. Within sight, a Wi-Fi connected hacker with smart phone has you in his sights. The hacker scopes your vehicle's computer system, sends the command and forces your car to accelerate into the rear bumper of a metallic gold BMW a couple of feet in front of you. That's a step beyond dealing with a sticky gas pedal, and researcher Stefan Savage insists that such a scenario could happen. This is because a smart car's electronic control units (ECUs) are the nerve network of a car. BBC News indicates that there's lots of data – 100 megs worth – spread across a common smart car's ECUs. As Discovery Magazine reports, that gives hackers numerous points of entry.

Savage and the ways of the CarShark

Savage's CarShark software demonstrated just how easy it can be to remotely gain access to car functions. For instance, common modern automobile computer systems like Electronic Stability Control and Active Cruise Control connect directly to brakes, accelerators, wheels and automated parallel parking. Hackers can flood those systems with dummy packets of data and lock them down, opening the way to send their own commands independent of the driver. While this isn't easy to achieve, a sophisticated car hacking expert could gain access. Hackers will always search for new methods to cause mischief if they are sufficiently motivated, but it is clear that automakers must take action to secure car computer systems. car hacked single-owner automobiles are one thing, but hackers could go on to a lot more sophisticated public transport possibilities like "road trains" and cause hellacious damage.

Car hacking is not all death and destruction

Stefan Savage points to the darkest aspects of car hacking, but Discovery points out that you will find lighter uses for the digital watusi. Wired writes of an Austin, Texas car dealer who used car hacking to harass dead beat customers. Firing the horns and lights were the dealer's little way of making dead beats take notice. Nevertheless, one employee went so far as to disable 100 cars. The offending employee was fired, but what of those automakers who don't patch the holes that make car hacking possible within the first place? They don't face the exact same scrutiny.

Citations

Discover Magazine

http://blogs.discove...-of-the-future/

http://blogs.discove...take-the-wheel/

I missed this post. The only way to hack a cars computer is if it has some type of communications link to the outside world. On-Star is so far the only setup that could allow it. It uses the cellular network so it is possible to hack it.

MY advice is to stay away from "networked" vehicles and stick to simple. It too pisses me off that cars and now even trucks are being filled with pointless electronic crap. And that is mainly due to the fact that most people simply cannot drive which really isn't that hard at all.

Expect more and more controll to be taken away from the driver to make the roads "safer". This only makes vehicles more and more vulnerable to electronic forms of attack. And we will see it happen.

[Gambi80]

Welllllllllll...we've got GPS auto-steer tractors nowadays. All you have to do basically is 'train' it once and it'll do it by itself after that. It's only a matter of time before your Garmin maps are programmed into your car's computer (once they get GPS down to the inch), some sort of radar to tell you how far/where other vehicles are around you and the auto-steer is built in and away you go driving completely input free.

Check this out...

[Rob]

Welllllllllll...we've got GPS auto-steer tractors nowadays. All you have to do basically is 'train' it once and it'll do it by itself after that. It's only a matter of time before your Garmin maps are programmed into your car's computer (once they get GPS down to the inch), some sort of radar to tell you how far/where other vehicles are around you and the auto-steer is built in and away you go driving completely input free.

Check this out...

Ever seen a large dozer with electronic stability and grading installed? I was out to Cat's proving grounds in Edwards a couple of years ago watching a guy with a D8N running grade without being in the tractor to show a +/- 1/4" finish grade with about a 2/3 full 10' wide mouldboard. All the operator did is steer the tractor with a couple of joysticks to get it in the starting position. The rest was automated.

Electronics are here to stay I'm afraid.

Rob