Report: Cars are vulnerable to wireless hacking

[bananas]

2. Senator: Your futuristic car is putting your privacy and security at risk

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/02/09/senator-your-futuristic-car-is-putting-your-privacy-and-security-at-risk/

Senator: Your futuristic car is putting your privacy and security at risk
By Andrea Peterson February 9 at 12:01 AM

Cars these days have more in common with smart phones than the Model-T. But a new report from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) warns that the increasing technical complexity of vehicles is leaving drivers' security and privacy at risk.

“Drivers have come to rely on these new technologies, but unfortunately the automakers haven’t done their part to protect us from cyber-attacks or privacy invasions," Markey in a statement. "Even as we are more connected than ever in our cars and trucks, our technology systems and data security remain largely unprotected."

Markey sent inquiries to 20 automakers, including Ford, Toyota and General Motors, last year, asking what the companies were doing to secure the technology in their vehicles against hackers and how personal data gathered through the technology is managed.

Cybersecurity experts have long warned that cars' electronic systems might be vulnerable to hackers, especially as auto-makers started building wireless connections to the outside world into vehicles. Researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek demonstrated how to take over the steering and brakes of a Ford Escape and a Toyota Prius using a laptop connected to the vehicles with a cable in 2013. Last year, the pair released a report detailing the wireless "attack surfaces" of a wide variety of vehicles on the market -- things like, Wi-Fi, keyless entry systems, and Bluetooth that might be targeted by a malicious hacker.

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