Cybersecurity

GM to hire hackers to find bugs in car computers

Highly computerized cars could mean consumers' data is vulnerable or driver safety might be endangered if car companies aren't prepared to cut off any data breach or threat to cybersecurity at the pass.

General Motors is taking no chances. It's bringing in those exact people who might do the infiltration to help thwart it.

In the upcoming weeks, GM will bring researchers, some of whom are professional computer hackers, to Detroit to offer them a bounty or cash payment for each "bug" they uncover in any of GM vehicles' computer systems.

"We'll show them the products, programs and systems for which we plan to establish these bug bounties. Then we'll put them in a comfortable environment, ply them with pizza and Red Bull or whatever they might need ... and turn them loose," GM's President Dan Ammann said in a speech at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit at Cobo Center in Detroit on Friday.