Automobiles could be vulnerable to hackers

Cars' Computer Systems Called at Risk to Hackers

Tomorrow's Internet-connected cars could be vulnerable to hackers in the way computers are today, warn researchers at the University of Washington (UW) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). During a recent test, the researchers were able to remotely control a car's braking and other functions.

"We demonstrate the ability to adversarially control a wide range of automotive functions and completely ignore driver input--including disabling the brakes, selectively braking individual wheels on demand, stopping the engine, and so on," the researchers write. The researchers were also able to insert malicious software into the car and then erase any evidence of tampering.

"Taken together, ubiquitous computer control, distributed internal connectivity, and telematics interfaces increasingly combine to provide an application software platform for external network access," write the researchers.

Refer here for more details.