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from the not-just-locking-the-doors-anymore dept.
The Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center has published an executive summary of their Automotive Cybersecurity Best Practices.
From the summary
As vehicles become increasingly connected and autonomous, the security and integrity of automotive systems is a top priority for the automotive industry. The Proactive Safety Principles released in January 2016 demonstrate the automotive industry's commitment to collaboratively enhance the safety of the traveling public. The objective of the fourth Principle, "Enhance Automotive Cybersecurity," is to explore and employ ways to collectively address cyber threats that could present unreasonable safety or security risks. This includes the development of best practices to secure the motor vehicle ecosystem.
Unfortunately the public executive overview is somewhat content free and refers to NIST documents on security practices but something is better than nothing. It's been six years since the publication of Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile and five years since Comprehensive Experimental Analyses of Automotive Attack Surfaces . In those research papers compsci students splay open the control system of a car through standard security analysis techniques such as fuzzing. My favorite technique they used was to install custom software into the QNX powered OnStar device then use it to bridge between the body bus and the bus that handles the engines, brakes, steering, etc. Very clever indeed.
How does the community feel about the poorly secured two ton (metric or imperial, you pick) rolling robot that the modern vehicle has become?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @05:05PM
When the car is running, the electric systems run off the generator. The generator also recharges the battery while running. So the kill switch you suggest will only work when the engine is off.
For car running off and trying to kill occupants, I suggest:
a) Install a cable from the acceleration controller electronics box positive terminal, and grounded through a switch (using a heavy gauge wire and high current switch). When car tries to kill you, turn the switch on. This shorts the killer acceleration controller box power supply to ground, blowing the fuse or at least interfering with its murderous intentions.
or if you are sophisticated:
b) Install a relay between the positive input and acceleration controller box input (Common and NC) so that it is normally connected. The relay can be turned on through a switch from passenger compartment. The relay opens the controller circuit when active, etc.