FTC Warns Consumers: Don't Sync To Your Rental Car! (securityledger.com)

Slashdot reader chicksdaddy quotes an article from Security Ledger: The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers to beware of new 'connected car' features that allow rental car customers to connect their mobile phone or other devices to in-vehicle infotainment systems. "If you connect a mobile device, the car may also keep your mobile phone number, call and message logs, or even contacts and text messages," the FTC said in an advisory released on Tuesday. "Unless you delete that data before you return the car, other people may view it, including future renters and rental car employees or even hackers."

The Commission is advising renters to avoid syncing their mobile phones to their rental car, or to power devices via a USB port, where settings on your device may allow automatic syncing of data. Consumers who do connect their device should scrutinize any requests for permissions.
Security researchers have also discovered another car-related vulnerability. The software connecting smartphones to in-vehicle "infotainment" systems could also make cars vulnerable to remote attacks.

Comments

Re:Is this a serious problem?

[OzPeter]

Even if I did share my contact list or SMS messages with the car, what are rental car clerks going to do with my contacts or a text message from my sister that reads "When are you going to be here?"?

Who says it will be the rental company employees doing the mining?

If I was a nefarious person I would rental high end cars from major airports for a day and see if any business people used the car and left any juicy details in the info system that would be very useful for social engineering attacks.