With all of the stories about GM and Chrysler cars being hackable, the discussion is changing to “what car can I buy that is not likely to be hacked?” At present, the answer appears to be Tesla based on this News.com story. Now let me be clear, you can hack into a Tesla, but there’s are some good reasons why this is a non-issue as demonstrated by Kevin Mahaffey and Marc Rogers at the DEFCON conference where all the top hackers get together to discuss computer security related topics:
Mahaffey and Rogers demonstrated that although the Model S isn’t unhackable, its information systems are remarkably well designed and secured, rendering their hacking methods largely impractical for for anyone who doesn’t already have constant physical access to the car. Working closely with Tesla, the automaker has already issued patches to block access to weak passwords stored locally and the firmware updater exploit. Thanks to its over-the-air update process, Tesla is able to push updates to its entire fleet of vehicles within a week.
So, unlike two of the big three cars (I say that because no hacker has pwned a Ford…. yet), Tesla vehicles are designed with some degree of security in mind so that one has to go to extreme measures to hack into one. Plus updates that fix exploits can be deployed quickly. That alone should make Tesla owners sleep well at night. But there’s another good reason:
Tesla also has a bug bounty program in place to reward researchers who point out flaws in its vehicle information systems and has recently upped the maximum reward to $10,000.
That’s a good thing because Tesla knows it won’t find every bug or exploit, thus there’s an incentive for other to do it and report their findings to Tesla rather than using their knowledge for evil. In both cases, these are areas that other automakers should adopt. Otherwise, they can fully expect hackers to continue to look for, and find new ways to pwn their cars. Plus if the prospect of having your car hacked scares you, you know what brand should be on your shopping list.
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This entry was posted on August 10, 2015 at 11:53 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Security, Tesla. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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If You Want A Reasonably Secure Car… Take A Look At Tesla
With all of the stories about GM and Chrysler cars being hackable, the discussion is changing to “what car can I buy that is not likely to be hacked?” At present, the answer appears to be Tesla based on this News.com story. Now let me be clear, you can hack into a Tesla, but there’s are some good reasons why this is a non-issue as demonstrated by Kevin Mahaffey and Marc Rogers at the DEFCON conference where all the top hackers get together to discuss computer security related topics:
Mahaffey and Rogers demonstrated that although the Model S isn’t unhackable, its information systems are remarkably well designed and secured, rendering their hacking methods largely impractical for for anyone who doesn’t already have constant physical access to the car. Working closely with Tesla, the automaker has already issued patches to block access to weak passwords stored locally and the firmware updater exploit. Thanks to its over-the-air update process, Tesla is able to push updates to its entire fleet of vehicles within a week.
So, unlike two of the big three cars (I say that because no hacker has pwned a Ford…. yet), Tesla vehicles are designed with some degree of security in mind so that one has to go to extreme measures to hack into one. Plus updates that fix exploits can be deployed quickly. That alone should make Tesla owners sleep well at night. But there’s another good reason:
Tesla also has a bug bounty program in place to reward researchers who point out flaws in its vehicle information systems and has recently upped the maximum reward to $10,000.
That’s a good thing because Tesla knows it won’t find every bug or exploit, thus there’s an incentive for other to do it and report their findings to Tesla rather than using their knowledge for evil. In both cases, these are areas that other automakers should adopt. Otherwise, they can fully expect hackers to continue to look for, and find new ways to pwn their cars. Plus if the prospect of having your car hacked scares you, you know what brand should be on your shopping list.
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This entry was posted on August 10, 2015 at 11:53 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Security, Tesla. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.