Slashdot Mirror
Hackers Demand Automakers Get Serious About Security
wiredmikey writes: In an open letter to Automotive CEOs, a group of security researchers has called on automobile industry executives to implement five security programs to improve car safety and build cyber-security safeguards inside the software systems powering various features in modern cars. As car automation systems become more sophisticated, they need to be locked down to prevent tampering or unauthorized access. The Five Star Automotive Cyber Safety Program outlined in the letter asked industry executives for safety by design, third-party collaboration, evidence capture, security updates, and segmentation and isolation. Vehicles are "computers on wheels," said Josh Corman, CTO of Sonatype and a co-founder of I am the Cavalry, the group who penned the letter (PDF). The group aims to bring security researchers together with representatives from non-security fields, such as home automation and consumer electronics, medical devices, transportation, and critical infrastructure, to improve security.
Getting the automakers to make any kind of substantive change requires either legislation or expensive PR disasters like a Pinto or Firestone/Explorer event.
You're looking for quotes? See my journal.
It's kinda terrifying that the people making fast, heavy lumps of metal with computerised control systems don't already routinely isolate those control systems from any other computerised technologies in the vehicle, particularly any that can interact remotely. They shouldn't need to be publicly admonished about the dangers of these situations. Don't these organisations employ actual engineers any more?
But given that it does seem to be necessary to make a public display of this -- which presumably removes any plausible deniability if the auto makers do get sued after an accident later, so I can believe it will at least get their attention -- I'm glad it seems to be a responsible group with the right motivations who are starting the ball rolling. If it were just a bunch of lawyers or insurers, the general public could write the campaign off as the signatories just looking out for their own interests.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Nothing is going to happen until a serious mishap occurs.
Meanwhile the automakers looks into strange hacks instead of proper physical segmentation and gatewaying. They do have a gateway, but it is just a gateway between different IP address series on the same physical net in some cases - in order to save money on hardware. So a rogue unit can just look at the different series and fake it being a different type of unit causing interesting things to happen.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Don't put this crap in cars in the first place.
I know, I know, simplicity is such an ugly word. It would be truly horrible if people had to concentrate on their driving rather than the six-channel, streaming video playing on their dashboard while they blend margaritas.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
One of the simplest ways to lock down a computer is to physically lock it away from access. Originally car-makers did that --you needed physical access to the computer (usually inside locked hood compartment) to do anything to it. Now they have connected it to radio waves. That is the main security hole. Go back to a solid wired-only connection, with the connection point(s) behind locked doors, and a significant chunk of the security problems goes away.
What I am afraid of is what happens after. There is a difference between security from remote attackers, and security from "jailbreakers". For example, my Android phone is just as secure rooted as not.
My fear is that what steps would be taken would force the car into the shop for any minor issue. Already, one automaker, if you change the battery out, the vehicle will refuse to start until the vehicle goes into the dealership and the battery is "registered" into the ECM.
Automakers should just keep stuff isolated. The radio should not have access to the brakes. Hell, the radio should not even be on the CAN. It should just be vital components, and have the doodads be stuck on another bus that can be "dirty".