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Is car hacking the next big thing?
11 Aug 2010For years I’ve been telling close friends who share my motorsports passion that we’re going to start seeing cars getting hacked. I believe this to be especially true once cars are online and communicating with the “smart highway” system we’re slowly approaching.
Well, we’re now starting to see the beginning of such hacks. Some research was uncovered earlier this year on how a car’s ECU (electronic control unit) can be manipulated in ways ranging from merely annoying the driver all the way to making them crash. The latest car hack uncovered involves the wireless tire pressure sensors in 2008+ automobiles (something the government mandated because of irresponsible drivers ignoring the maintenance required of their vehicles).
As with any computer system, if there’s a hardware port, a wireless signal, or an IP address, then it’s going to be exploitable/exploited. I just hope it doesn’t start happening to me and my colleagues and on the racetrack! Wouldn’t that be a fine how do you do?...
Can’t wait to see the evolution of this. Sure, car hacking doesn’t involve sensitive information…instead it involves something of much greater value: people’s lives. I think this is going to be big, really big. Stayed tuned for more.
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I’ve written/co-written 12 books on information security including:
