How your cutting-edge car makes you vulnerable to the CIA and other hackers
A major strategy for car-makers to protect vehicles from cyber hijacking is to reduce the number of communications gateways to crucial systems
San Francisco — WikiLeaks documents showing the CIA considered a "mission" against connected car technology underscores auto-bindustry concern that the science behind the next generation of vehicles could be turned against them. Cyber security is considered key to the roll-out of tomorrow’s self-driving and today’s connected cars, which resemble computers on wheels with a host of communications routes that hackers could target. If consumers are to trust smart vehicles, they must deem them safe from attack. Security experts cite the terrifying hypothetical example of a remote attack on a fully autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or brakes, in which the passenger would have no recourse to regain manual control of the car. "You have a lot of car companies trying to design cars to be better suited to automation, which means they’re more attractive to hackers," said auto consultant Roger Lanctot of Strategy Analytics. A major strategy for auto-makers is to reduce the number of comm...
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