Page 2 - AO Insurance FlipBook

Cars Being Hacked
As recently as five years ago, reports of cars being hacked were relatively rare. In
March 2011, at both UC San Diego
and University of Washington,
teams were able to hack into a
mainstream production car via its
cellular data connection, getting
access to drive systems. In May 2013 the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) established its first team to monitor car hacks.
A typical new car today has over one hundred microprocessors. All of this is given shape by up to 100 million lines of software code. These are cyber physical systems. So effectively, when you’re in your car, you’re in a computer on wheels. But, what are the robustness and the resiliency of that entity? Probably far less than your average laptop!
Mary Aiken is a cyber psychologist, and real-life inspiration for the new show CSI Cyber on CBS. She is a
cyber cop. Her concerns underline four things going on in the connected car; first, the processors and networks increasingly control important stuff; second, the car systems are increasingly interconnected; get into one part of the car’s electronics, and you may be on your way to be getting into the rest. Third, these systems
are increasingly exposed to wireless interfaces. From a wireless key that can remotely
start your car to Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi for streaming in hot spots
and built in cellular radios that
power the car’s telematics or
concierge service. And finally,
the Internet. As with everything
else online, it’s a non-proprietary shared infrastructure. Intoxicatingly powerful, efficient, and scalable, but shared is shared. That means both good guys and bad.
With cars on US roads currently at a historic high of 11.4 years old average, whatever vulnerabilities going on out there will likely remain for a long time.
More car tech demystified right now at: Click Here