CARS could soon become the target of computer hackers bent on causing death and destruction on the roads.
The terrifying idea of cyber fiends taking control of moving vehicles has become a realistic possibility as a result of an increased use of onboard computers coupled with internet connectivity.
It means a modern car with an internet connection – or even one brought online through a smartphone connection to enable wireless calls through the stereo – could theoretically be targeted by hackers anywhere in the world.
A former US security chief has revealed he believes a journalist killed in a horror car crash last year could have been the victim of a car hacker.
Michael Hastings was killed when his Mercedes C250 coupe slammed into a tree in Los Angeles, California, in June.
The reporter – whose revealing profile of General Stanley
McChrystal in Rolling Stone magazine ended the career of one of America’s top soldiers – was initially presumed to be the victim of a tragic accident. But ex-Pentagon official Richard Clarke has suggested car hacking may have been to blame.
He said: “What has been revealed by research at
universities is that it is relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car.
“Hackers can make a vehicle accelerate when the driver doesn’t want it to, or activate the brakes or launch an air bag. .
“You can do some highly destructive things through hacking a car – and it’s not that difficult to do.
“So, if there was a cyber attack on the car – and I’m not saying there was – whoever did it would probably get away with it.
“In the case of Michael
Hastings, the evidence that is publicly available is consistent with a car cyber attack.”
Clarke, 62, spent nearly two decades at the Pentagon before moving to the White House, where he served under
President Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush.
The prospect of car hacking opens up a terrifying new threat.
Researchers at the UK’s Motor Industry Research Association (Mira) have revealed they reproduced a hacking attack by interfering with the cruise-control mechanism of an unnamed car.
Chris Reeves, Mira’s commercial manager of intelligent mobility and future transport technologies, explained how this seemingly futuristic task is carried out.
He said: “We could adjust
a car’s speed in the range of 20mph to 50mph using a laptop computer. This is something that needs to be considered by the industry.”
Meanwhile, Professor Stefan Savage, of the University of
California, San Diego, claims to have taken control of a car
wirelessly with his research team.
He said: “We demonstrated remote wireless exploitation of vehicles using both Bluetooth and cellular networks via software bugs in media-player firmware and diagnostic systems.
“We then had fairly arbitrary control over other engine control units – including the ability to remotely brake or turn off the brakes altogether.”
While web-based car attacks require high levels of skill, there are several examples of low level car hacking. BMW hit the
headlines last year following hi-tech thefts of their cars in the Midlands and east London.
Thieves took advantage of a combination of vulnerabilities in factory-fitted alarm systems and a diagnostic port typically used to read fault codes to reprogramme blank keys.
BMW have since released a
software update to remove the vulnerability.
Charlie Miller, a security engineer at Twitter, hacked into a Ford Escape SUV before taking control of the vehicle through a Nintendo games console.
International police bodies, Europol and Interpol met to discuss car hacking at a meeting