Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway

[hybridbear]

This would definitely be a concern in the Energi since it has a cellular modem, like the Jeep they hacked into.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

[Texasota]

This is indeed disturbing. Add on top of this the big brother implications of your car being tracked for gasoline taxes. All of this high tech in our cars does have a down side besides being very difficult for the average service department to work on them. Technology in cars can be great when it works but a frustrating experience and even dangerous when it malfunctions or is compromised.

 

I still like the manual door lock and windows in my truck. ;)

[Waldo]

I have manual windows in my Miata. The driver's side sticks and won't go all the way down. The power windows in all my other cars, however, work just perfectly.

[Cobra348]

This would definitely be a concern in the Energi since it has a cellular modem, like the Jeep they hacked into.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

Article I saw was that the techniques used work only with Uconnect and Sprint cellular service. But I wonder how long until we're all in some sort of trouble.

[hybridbear]

Article I saw was that the techniques used work only with Uconnect and Sprint cellular service. But I wonder how long until we're all in some sort of trouble.

You're correct. The only system that these hackers have compromised so far is the Uconnect system which uses Sprint. It appears that they picked this system because they determined it to be especially vulnerable in studying various systems. I didn't know that so many Chryslers had 3G modems in them for Uconnect. I mostly think of internet connected cars as EVs since every one of them has a cellular modem for the online EV functions.

[Waldo]

You're correct. The only system that these hackers have compromised so far is the Uconnect system which uses Sprint. It appears that they picked this system because they determined it to be especially vulnerable in studying various systems. I didn't know that so many Chryslers had 3G modems in them for Uconnect. I mostly think of internet connected cars as EVs since every one of them has a cellular modem for the online EV functions.

 

GM's Onstar includes a modem and they've been using those since about 2006 in just about every model.

[Cobra348]

 

GM's Onstar includes a modem and they've been using those since about 2006 in just about every model.

I'm thinking any vehicle with Wi-Fi ability might be vulnerable if it is on and active. That's not a "good thing" at all. I checked and Wi-Fi in Nytwing is off/deactivated ... whatever. It ain't gonna be used ... just like home network is hardwired, not wireless. Old-fashioned, but secure enough to make me happy.

[hybridbear]

GM's Onstar includes a modem and they've been using those since about 2006 in just about every model.

Yes, so GM should have more experience & thus they should do a better job at protecting their connection from hackers. Do you know what type of modem they use? And which cellular network? The Ford EVs use a 2G AT&T cellular modem. The Nissan Leaf does the same. The Kia Soul EV uses a 3G Verizon modem. I'm not sure about other EVs.

[murphy]

Tesla uses 3G and just introduced LTE on AT&T.

[jdbob]

The 2016 Volt will have LTE, don't know which carrier.

[jimbo33]

I think this is way overblown. In order for the hack to work the hacker had to know the IP address that the car was using. That is just not practical. The news is calling it a "zero day attacK" which means that the attack happened before the software engineers addressed the problem but that is not true, the problem had already been patched on cars being assembled at the time of the car hack, the car they used had not been updated yet.

 

The news media is great about trying to scare us about the technology used in cars and I am sure that a lot of very smart bad guys are burning the midnight oil trying to figure out how to use the technology in our cars to hurt us but so far there has been nothing even close a realistic threat. Remember that the TV news show that started this scare about the potential to hack cars had to take the dash apart on a Honda and access components directly in order for a hack to work. Even in an unpatched Chrysler I would not lose sleep worrying that someone could figure out the IP address of my car as I drive by.