Hackers Demand Automakers Get Serious About Security 120
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.
Re:An easier solution (Score:4, Informative)
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 [wikipedia.org].
What's even crazier is, you don't even need what they are doing to get the the same services. Just give the car radio bluetooth and be done with it. I've got an after market headunit in my car that cost me less than $150 and it can stream, do audio calls, shows my contacts in the head unit, I can use voice activation to say "Call home" and my phone will dial... etc... for another $50 I could have even gotten an LCD screen and streamed movies if I wanted. The last thing I want is to buy a car with some proprietary system in it that I wont be able to upgrade for the next 15yrs until I trade the car in.
The last car I bought had "Ford Sync" in it, and it was a pain in the butt to take out. The entire dashes electronics were integrated into the radio. WHY?!?! I had to purchase an after market computer module to replace the functions of that head-unit so I could put in a real radio. What a joke.