The hazards of technology - Independent Online
All the frenzy over car-hacking would make more sense if the risks weren’t so easy to reduce: Just drive a simple car. The success of two security researchers in remotely hacking a Jeep – and taking over its accelerator while in motion – has prompted a class-action suit, a Senate bill to require vehicle makers to protect cars from such attacks, and a 1. 4... That said, cars have long been susceptible to hacks. Criminals have stolen thousands of cars – including David Beckham’s BMW X5 SUV in 2006 – by cracking the code needed to disable the immobiliser, a theft-prevention device that is obligatory in the EU and that 86 percent of cars in the US have. The immobiliser employs a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that will not allow the engine to run unless the car’s original key, which transmits the necessary code, is present. The car industry does not want people to hear too much about hacking immobilisers. Bloomberg News reported on Friday that Volkswagen, the world’s biggest car manufacturer by volume, had spent two years trying to suppress a report – now finally public – concerning a flaw in the chip that powers immobilisers. Messing with the immobiliser is not the same as taking over the car’s entire computer system, as hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek did with the Jeep. Source: www.iol.co.za
