Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The World's Most Hackable Cars

Posted by Soulskill on from the cylons-were-created-by-man dept.

ancientribe writes: If you're wondering whether the most tech-loaded vehicles are also the most vulnerable to hackers, there is now research that shows it. Charlie Miller, a security engineer with Twitter, and Chris Valasek, director of security intelligence at IOActive, studied modern auto models and concluded that the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, the 2014 Infiniti Q50, and the 2015 Escalade are the most likely to get hacked. The key is whether their networked features that can communicate outside the vehicle are on the same network as the car's automated physical functions. They also name the least-hackable cars, and will share the details of their new findings next week at Black Hat USA in Las Vegas.

4 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. These are not HACKABLE, these are INSECURE by coder111 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Slashdot of all places should know the difference.

    Hackable- I can install Debian on it and tweak the engine to play mp3s.

    Insecure- Some asshat will ruin your day because the vendor doesn't provide timely patches, or the patches they provide make things worse so you cannot install them, or there is no way to patch things at all, or it's so tedious nobody does it.

    --Coder

    1. Re:These are not HACKABLE, these are INSECURE by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We get that you're still upset that the media has managed to take the term "hacker" and turn it into a pejorative, but I don't think that you're ever going to get it back. Probably time to just let it go move on.

      How's educating those new Usenet users since September 1993 going?

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:These are not HACKABLE, these are INSECURE by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I saw the article headline and immediately thought "Cool! Someone figured out how to do neat things with the hardware in the car?" I thought maybe even the car companies were cool enough to enable truly extensible functionality with their entertainment systems or whatnot (wouldn't that be something?). However, in this case, "insecure" wouldn't have been enough, since that would probably refer to their physical security.

      I'm not naive - the masses will never use the admittedly ridiculous term "crackers" rather than "hackers" - it just doesn't have the same ring to it. Personally, I love applying the term "script kiddies" to anyone who does harm, even if it doesn't technically apply, since it's rather demeaning. Anyhow, that battle has long since been over. But Slashdot is not a site for the masses. I thought at least "hacking" here was still a term mostly used for clever if sometimes unofficially unauthorized use of one's own hardware in interesting ways. You know, hacking a videogame's cameras or input devices, for instance...

      We're getting old, aren't we? Sigh...

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. VW Beetle by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The most hackable car would probably be the VW Beetle. So many cool addons and mods exist. I am talking about the original Beetle, of course, not the rounded-Rabbit.

    Hacking is supposed to be good stuff here, right? Or did something change?