Car Hacking...

I heard an interesting story on Science Friday on NPR yesterday and it peaked my interest and imagination. Ira interviewed Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, two security experts who figured out how to hack into a car and control the horn, steering wheel,speedometer, and brakes through the on-board computer systems. They could do a remote attack by accessing bluetooth or wireless signals that the devices in the car use to communicate (like if you have tires that transmit pressure information using a wireless signal). I thought this was really interesting, so here is the podcast. The interesting thing about all of this is that if someone were to exploit one of these security vectors, there would be no way at all to prove that it had happened. By doing just this, Chris and Charlie hope car makers will move towards some sort of security for their onboard systems because there is no way at this time to protect your car. To me, this has the makings of a great story. A lot of comments were fears of people running out and hacking people on the road, with the result of hundreds of cars suddenly veering off the freeway. So far no one has ever been hacked outside of this experiment. Interesting stuff.