One of the themes at DEFCON this year is the openness of our machines to outside manipulation. There are a whole series of presentations dealing with cars and how they can be hacked. One of the standing-room-only presentations was given by a couple of guys who had borrowed a friends new Tesla, removed the dash board and precede to see how well it was designed against hackers.
They said the software in the car was very well designed. They were able to work all of the peripheral controls such as door locks and head lights but when they tried to shut the car down they found that, although they could cut the fancy instruments and kill the engine they could not take over the steering and breaks at anything over 5 MPH. They found several problems but by the time they gave their presentation they said two had been fixed and the company was working on another. One of the Tesla top executives was present and thanked them for their work.
This is the way hackers would like to work. Find ways things can be broken and have them fixed. Then they look for other problems. When done correctly, it makes the world safer for everyone. The Tesla company has set up a reward program for hackers that find bugs in their system. At present the top award is $10,000.
I drive old cars so I don’t need to worry about it but you might ask yourself if you have one of those cars where they can unlock the doors for you, it might be a good idea to ask yourself what else they can do.
homo unius libri
I never trust folks who want to "help" me. Too many bad experiences.
ReplyDeleteBut you really do need that insurance. I am only saying that because I care.
DeleteGrace and peace