- “CONNECTED CARS: Is your internet-enabled vehicle safe from hackers?”, IOL.CO.ZA, Jun 30, 2021, https://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/connected-cars-is-your-internet-enabled-vehicle-safe-from-hackers-af650f21-d7ec-49ef-8c97-c1cb605f947dLinks to an external site.
- “Serious Concerns That AI Self-Driving Cars Cybersecurity Will Be A Hacker Leak Like An Open Sieve”, Forbes, August 25, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2021/08/25/serious-concerns-that-ai-self-driving-cars-cybersecurity-will-be-a-hacker-leak-like-an-open-sieve/?sh=5930e4c7477fLinks to an external site.
- “Highway to hack: Why we’re just at the beginning of the auto-hacking era”, ArsTechnica, August 2015, http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/highway-to-hack-why-were-just-at-the-beginning-of-the-auto-hacking-era/Links to an external site.
Answer both of the following questions:
- What are the implications of vehicle hacking for autonomous vehicles? Today’s vehicles have complex computer code and autonomous vehicles will have even more complex code. Do you think we will ever have widespread use of safe autonomous vehicles? Why or why not?
- One of the suggestions to improve vehicle security is for car manufacturers to release their code open source to allow for public scrutiny. Do you think this would help improve vehicle security? Why or why not?
Many security companies have top-of-the-line software, yet cyberattacks still happen every day even if they are not reported. I don’t think anyone is ever 100% safe. I do think you can greatly decrease the likelihood of an attack and maybe be 99.9% safe, but never 100%. Companies grow and they typically do not release products without testing, but recalls happen all the time. Issuing a recall is a last resort due to it costing millions and typically, in my opinion from what I have seen, they wait until others report it or until serious damage occurs. I purposely do not buy cars that allow for upgrades to be released in your car in the middle of the night or anything where the company can figure out a bug and send out fixes without notice unless you dig. Some are not even aware this happens to their Apple Car Play or Bluetooth system.
Some may say the scenario just mentioned is the same as iPhones, but this can affect not only your own life if you were to get hacked, but also applies and can affect others. A Criminal Minds episode appears in my head** every time this topic is mentioned. In the episode, someone was hacking a specific car series and model through a radio station and innocent lives were being taken. This happened because they figured out how to hack their car and applied it to others.
I believe that it could be useful to post older versions of the code after many changes have been made just to see what others can find and cover all of their bases, but I am unsure in that aspect as I do not know a lot about the subject.
**The episode mentioned is not a credible source and is just a thought that occurs based on this discussion and the subject of the episode.**
Resources:
- “Highway to hack: Why we’re just at the beginning of the auto-hacking era”, ArsTechnica, August 2015, http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/highway-to-hack-why-were-just-at-the-beginning-of-the-auto-hacking-era/