VW Has Spent Two Years Trying to Hide a Big Security Flaw - Bloomberg
Thousands of cars from a host of manufacturers have spent years at risk of electronic car-hacking, according to expert research that Volkswagen has spent two years trying to suppress in the courts. The weakness – which affects the Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) transponder chip used in immobilizers – was discovered in 2012, but carmakers sued the researchers to prevent them from publishing their findings. This week the paper – by Roel Verdult and Baris Ege from Radboud University in the Netherlands and Flavio Garcia from the University of Birmingham, U. K. – is being presented at the USENIX security conference in Washington, D. C. The authors... The Megamos is one of the most common immobilizer transponders, used in Volkswagen-owned luxury brands including Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, as well as Fiats, Hondas, Volvos and some Maserati models. "It isn't a theoretical weakness, it's an actual one and it doesn't cost theoretical dollars to fix, it costs actual dollars. Immobilizers are electronic security devices that stop a car's engine from running unless the correct key fob (containing the RFID chip) is in close proximity to the car. Source: www.bloomberg.com
