The world in which we live today is electronic and digital. It’s only when these electronic items are safe and secure would mankind benefit. Now a day’s any electronic device can get hacked easily, but cars getting hacked are something strange that would never usually take place. Recently, cyber security researchers have shown that by using the internet, car engines can be switched off even when it is moving, thus fuelling a debate over the safety of cars.
Charlie Miller, Former National Security Agency hacker and Chris Valasek, IOActive researcher used a feature in the Fiat Chrysler telematics system , Uconnect, to break into a car driven by a reporter of technology news site Wired.com. The Jeep Cherokees radio was turned on and other inessential features were activated. He rewrote the code embedded in the entertainment system hardware in order to issue commands to the steering wheels, brakes and its engine through internal network. Uconnect is a feature found in Fiat Chrysler, which enables phone calls, controls entertainment and powers WiFi hotspot. This is simple example showing the vulnerability of the connected vehicles.
Fix for most serious vulnerability had been issued as per Fiat Chrysler. For many years, Miller and Valasek have been investigating car safety and warned regarding hacking. According to Mark Rosekind, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief, his agency is worried about the security of vehicle control systems.
According to Charlie Miller’s statement, hundreds and thousands of cars are unsafe on the road. Since October, Miller and Valasek had been working with Fiat Chrysler. They had given the company time to construct a patch in order to disable a feature that men suspected to be turned on by accident. It was also stated that, earlier in the year, vulnerability in BMW system was found, which allowed the researchers to open the vehicle locks operating from very far place.
At Def Con security conference next month, Miller and Valasek are planning to release a paper. The main thing would be the code for remote access that would not function on updated version of cars. According to the researchers, hackers would require details regarding IP address of a car to attack it and the address changes when car starts moving. Valasek is of the opinion that, anything that is connected to outer world is an attack vector and prone to hacking. Both Miller and Valasek studied 20 different vehicles and ranked them regarding their vulnerability to cyber security
