Lexus Computers Infected Via Bluetooth

Country_hacker writes "SCNews is reporting certain models of Lexus have been found with corrupted operating systems in their on-board computers. Evidently the virus got transferred through the Bluetooth interface. It's still unclear whether or not the computers run Symbian."

Comments

Obligatory

[fembots]

Bill Gates is a known Lexus driver. In 1999 he auctioned one for charity.

So maybe this thing is running Windows? In this case, we already have a solution.

And shouldn't vehicle have a read-only section just for the essentials? So that even the main system is down, the car will detach the OS and still function like a, like a, car?

Re:Obligatory

[Thud457]

Isn't that how cars started going feral in Roger Zelazny's "Last of the Wild Ones"? (And "Devil Car" and "Auto-de-Fé", too).

Aircraft and Windows

[AB3A]

"I've even seen screenshots of major commercial aeroplanes with Windows 2000-based operating systems," said Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research at Finnish firm F-Secure.

Calm down folks. I've seen plenty of cool looking computers built in to aircraft instrument panels. Yes, some of them run Windows.

First, you can be assured that they only update via a firmware media card such as SDRAM. Nobody's going to point a Bluetooth antenna at an airplane and knock it out of the sky.

Second, of the gripes that most of you have about Windows, the majority and the most egregious behaviors have to do with what happens when you network these things to insecure places. Windows has actually become quite stable in the last few releases. In a stand-alone configuration these systems are fairly reliable platforms.

Third, most pilots rarely get in to the down and dirty features of their displays. They don't have the time, nor do most of them care enough to learn any more than they need to get the airplane safely from point A to point B. You can say one thing for certain about Windows: the path is well worn. As long as you are doing relatively conventional stuff, it will serve you well.

Fourth, these are just navigation boxes. There are backup instruments. If a navigation computer dies, there will be other resources to navigate with. There are very few things in the panel of the airplane which do not have a backup of some sort --particularly where the avionics stack is concerned.

I say this as one who really doesn't like using or programming with Windows. Like any tool, it has its flaws; though when properly used, it can be quite safe.