Modern car technology is like medicine. It gives you a benefit you may or may not need, in exchange for a long list of side effects and “ask so-and-so about this before doing this.” Case in point: these recommendations from USA Today, which say to store car keys in a microwave or fridge to thwart hackers.
Nissan Canada’s finance arm is notifying more than one million customers of a data breach that led to personal information being accessed by at least one unauthorized person.
We’ve heard for a while now that hackers are taking advantage of keyless entry systems to steal modern cars in what are known as “relay attacks.” And while some folks are using old-school methods like steering wheel locks to shield themselves, there is a much simpler method.
Uber concealed a massive breach for more than a year, in which hackers stole the personal data of 57 million customers and drivers from Uber, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The company’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, responded by saying he didn’t learn of the breach until recently.
After discovering similar vulnerabilities in the Model S last year, the Chinese security research firm Tencent Keen Security Lab have turned their attention to the Tesla Model X, and have been able to exploit these security holes to remotely do things to the Model X like open its doors, blink the lights, control…
I know DMVs aren’t necessarily staffed with gearheads or even anyone who necessarily gives a rat’s rectum about cars, but you’d think there’d be some people with at least a familiarity of car terms. You’d think, but it seems you’d be dreaming, based on this rejected personalized plate from the California DMV.
It’s been a sort of open secret for a few years now that you can hack the infotainment system on some 2014 and up Mazdas with the right software on a USB drive. What is new, though, is that now the software required to do this is freely available on GitHub. What’s also interesting is how this security flaw has been…
I’ve never really been crazy about proximity keys, mostly because I’m a scatter-brained fool. The overall car industry loves them, though, and most new cars use these types of keyless entry systems. A team of Chinese researchers have figured out a very clever and cheap way to hack the passive keyless entry system and…
1st Gear: Paying The Cost To Try And Be The Boss
If you’ve been even remotely aware of the sorts of things geeks and makers and tinkerers and basement cyborg-makers have been doing over the past few years, you’re likely familiar with the Arduino, a small, cheap, general-purpose computer designed to interface with real-world stuff. It’s a fantastic thing. And now,…
It’s freaky enough when hackers can disable brakes, control a steering wheel or shut down an engine as a vehicle goes down the road. But hacking can happen when a car is vacant, and there’s apparently a device making its way over from Europe that tricks keyless systems into unlocking and starting a car for theft.
You may recall that there has been a struggle among those of us that like to work on our own cars. A struggle against something called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which suggested that you don’t really own the software that runs your car, hence, you can’t touch it. Happily, that’s not going to happen, at…
Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a story about two men who had been caught hacking into and stealing Jeeps and Rams. Now Fiat Chrysler has updated its terms of use on DealerCONNECT and told the Houston Chronicle exactly how the thieves used the dealer software to steal cars.
Even more bad news for Volkswagen: security researchers have discovered a huge security hole that affects potentially up to 100 million cars. It’s possible, using hardware as cheap as a $40 setup with an Arduino and an add-on radio transceiver board, to intercept signals from a Volkswagen Group key fob, and then by…
Last year in a Wired report, a duo of computer geeks showed the world they could hack into and immobilize a Jeep Cherokee with nothing more than a laptop, prompting Chrysler to later recall 1.4 million vehicles. Clearly these cars have some cybersecurity issues, because police say two intrepid hackers in Houston used…
First, I want to make it clear that the type of hack that the car-hacking superfriends Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek did this time is not remote. They had a laptop physically connected to the car via the OBD port. Let that temper your alarm as I tell you that they were able to get control of steering and braking,…
Since we do pretty much everything on the web nowadays – order food, tell people what terrible parents they are, masturbate – it only makes sense that we’ll use the familiar web browser to hack people’s cars. Thanks to a pretty significant vulnerability found by a security researcher on BMW’s ConnectedDrive web portal…
Mitsubishi may have needed to cut some corners recently, but one odd decision the nice folks of the diamond-star made has left a huge security hole. The 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid’s mobile app talks to the car over regular WiFi, and security researchers found that to be a big problem.
The FBI sent out a PSA just over a month ago warning us all about the risks of car hacking, but drivers in Michigan may not have to worry about that too much after all. If two new bills pass through the state’s Senate, hackers of electronic vehicle systems could face a sentence of up to life in prison.
