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US Wants Cybersecurity Protection Plan For Cars
coondoggie writes "As cars and other forms of transportation increasingly rely on online systems for everything from safety to onboard entertainment, the cybersecurity threat from those who would exploit such electronic control packages has also increased. That's why the US Department of Transportation (DOT) today issued a Request For Information to the security industry to help it build a roadmap to build 'motor vehicle safeguards against cybersecurity threats and assure the reliability and safety of automotive electronic control systems.'"
How come the first thing that came to mind was "they want to put a kill switch in my car?" They won't call it that, of course.
Let's stop cramming all this electronic shit into our cars. The wireless capabilities of the newer cars these days is really starting to get scary. The tech is awesome, but the potential for wrong-doing (government, vandals, or otherwise) is just too great. Only so much of the new stuff they're coming out with is actually useful; the rest of it is just junk meant to distract from the actual act of driving, or to add to the billfold of whoever builds the replacements for these in-car computers.
As with so many other systems, when it doesn't need to be connected to a network to do what it does and when connecting it to said network opens up the chance for attacks over the network, THEN LEAVE IT OF THE FSCKING NETWORK! Regardless of if it is airplane systems, nuclear centerfuges, general industrial control systems, medical equipment, cars or whatever else, if you leave it completely unconnected from a network then you have removed a very real vector of attack. And that doesn't mean you have to stop paying attention, but it does mean you are off to a good start.