Car security

A New Wireless Hack Can Unlock 100 Million Volkswagens

IN 2013, WHEN University of Birmingham computer scientist Flavio Garcia and a team of researchers were preparing to reveal a vulnerability that allowed them to start the ignition of millions of Volkswagen cars and drive them off without a key, they were hit with a lawsuit that delayed the publication of their research for two years. But that experience doesn’t seem to have deterred Garcia and his colleagues from probing more of VW’s flaws: Now, a year after that hack was finally publicized, Garcia and a new team of researchers are back with another paper that shows how Volkswagen left not only its ignition vulnerable but the keyless entry system that unlocks the vehicle’s doors, too. And this time, they say, the flaw applies to practically every car Volkswagen has sold since 1995.

Car security

The FBI Warns That Car Hacking Is a Real Risk

IT’S BEEN EIGHT months since a pair of security researchers proved beyond any doubt that car hacking is more than anaction movie plot device when they remotely killed the transmission of a 2014 Jeep Cherokee as I drove it down a St. Louis highway. Now the FBI has caught up with that news, and it’s warning Americans to take the risk of vehicular cybersabotage seriously.

In a public service announcement issued together with the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, the FBI on Thursday released a warning to drivers about the threat of over-the-internet attacks on cars and trucks.

Car security

Revolutionary steel treatment paves the way for radically lighter, stronger, cheaper cars

Back in 2011, we wrote about a fascinating new way to heat-treat regular, cheap steel to endow it with an almost miraculous blend of characteristics. Radically cheaper, quicker and less energy-intensive to produce, Flash Bainite is stronger than titanium by weight, and ductile enough to be pressed into shape while cold without thinning or cracking. It's now being tested by three of the world's five largest car manufacturers, who are finding they can produce thinner structural car components that are between 30-50 percent lighter and cheaper than the steel they've been using, while maintaining the same performance is crash tests. Those are revolutionary numbers in the auto space.

Car security

Complex Car Software Becomes the Weak Spot Under the Hood

Shwetak N. Patel looked over the 2013 Mercedes C300 and saw not a sporty all-wheel-drive sedan, but a bundle of technology.

There were the obvious features, like a roadside assistance service that communicates to a satellite. But Dr. Patel, a computer science professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, flipped up the hood to show the real brains of the operation: the engine control unit, a computer attached to the side of the motor that governs performance, fuel efficiency and emissions.

To most car owners, this is an impregnable black box. But to Dr. Patel, it is the entry point for the modern car tinkerer — the gateway to the code.

“If you look at all the code in this car,” Dr. Patel said, “it’s easily as much as a smartphone if not more.”

Car security

VW Has Spent Two Years Trying to Hide a Big Security Flaw

Thousands of cars from a host of manufacturers have spent years at risk of electronic car-hacking, according to expert research that Volkswagen has spent two years trying to suppress in the courts.

“Keyless” car theft, which sees hackers target vulnerabilities in electronic locks and immobilizers, now accounts for 42 percent of stolen vehicles in London. BMWs and Range Rovers are particularly at-risk, police say, and can be in the hands of a technically minded criminal within 60 seconds.

Car security

More than 50 cars hit by prowlers in Camas; surveillance released

More than 50 cars have been hit by prowlers in Camas in just the last week and a half, and police have now released surveillance images of two suspects.

Police have been taking reports of numerous car prowls throughout the west side of Prune Hill.

The thefts from inside the vehicles have led to fraud and identity theft, as well as burglaries, according to police. The suspects have taken garage door remotes to gain access to the victims' garages

Car security

Jeep owners urged to update their cars after hackers take remote control

Security experts are urging owners of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles vehicles to update their onboard software after hackers took control of a Jeep over the internet and disabled the engine and brakes and crashed it into a ditch.

A security hole in FCA’s Uconnect internet-enabled software allows hackers to remotely access the car’s systems and take control.

Car security

100% Cars Now Hackable, 50%+ Transmit Data & 65,000 Land Rover Bugged

WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM: Just as Snowden exposed governments for cyber-spying on civilians and on one-another countries by tracking metadata of phone conversations and other forms of digital exchanges,car users and owners should be know that nearly 100% of cars on the market today include wireless technologies and contextual data  can be hacked, disabled/enabled, transmitted and shared - including to 3rd parties.