Dude, where’s my car? Vehicle hacking trends & analysis; #2

Vehicles are Vulnerable

            Vehicles have shown their vulnerabilities. From the earliest points of manufacture, vehicles have been produced with vulnerabilities, for the most part unintentionally. These have ranged from the mechanical (door locks) to the computer related. These have been well known by their manufacturer’s engineers at times. This has become quite a problem so that the FBI published a public service announcement alert, #I-031716-PSA. This noted the researchers were able to demonstrate a vehicle having vulnerabilities that were able to be exploited.

This has become much more of a problem due to the connectivity. In the recently engineered vehicles, there has been a rising use of computers, which has increased the risk of cyber-attack (Mearian, 2016; Sonawane, 2016; & Shackford, 2016). With this increase in connectivity, consumers have to maintain the awareness of potential, cybersecurity threats and take appropriate steps to minimize this (Kravets, 2016).

As noted the FBI in conjunction with the NHTSA have warned the public via the public service announcement (Rockwell, 2016). To research this, the NHTSA started the Electronic Systems Safety Research to conduct research on the safety, security, and reliability of vehicle systems in modern vehicles on the electronic systems that are interconnected (NHTSA, 2015).

References

Kravets, D. (2016, March 18). FBI cautions motorists to “maintain awareness” of automobile hacks. Retrieved form http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/fbi-cautions-motorists-to-maintain-awareness-of-automobile-hacks/

Mearian, L. (2016, March 23). Should you worry that your car will be hacked? Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com/article/3047193/security/should-you-be-worried-your-car-will-be-hacked.html 

NHTSA. (2015, July). NHTSA and vehicle cybersecurity. Retrieved from http://www.ngtsa.gov/staticfiles/administration/pdf/presentation_speeches/2015/NHTSA-Vehicle-Cybersecurity-07212015.pdf

Rockwell, M. (2016, March 18). FBI, NHTSA issue warning on vehicle hacks. Retrieved from https://fcw.com/articles/2016/03/18/car-hacking.aspx

Shackford, S. (2016, March 18). FBI warns about car hacking, encryption security helps prevent that. Retrieved from http://reason.com/blog/2016/03/18/fbi-warns-about-car-hacking-encryption-s

Sonawane, V. (2016, March 18). Car cybersecurity: FBI says motor vehicles ‘increasingly vulnerable’ to hacking. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/car-cyberseucrity-fbi-says-motor-vehicles-increasingly-vulnerable-hacking-2338940