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Fiat Chrysler's bad week just got even worse: the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recalled 1.4 million of the manufacturer's cars after a dangerous software flaw was revealed just days ago.
Renowned hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek warned on Tuesday of a ridiculous vuln in the computer systems built into Fiat Chrysler cars: the flaw can be exploited by an attacker to wirelessly take control of the engine, brakes and entertainment system.
The cars connect to the internet via Fiat Chrysler's uConnect cellular network, and thus can be accessed and tampered with from miles away by anyone who knows the vehicle's public IP address. No authentication is required. The US network has been attempting to block incoming connections, we're told. The motor giant has produced a software fix for the root cause of the vulnerability – unfortunately, the update has to be manually installed via a USB stick plugged into the car.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 27 2015, @06:23PM
the simpler it is the better
I selected my new car partially because its disconnected. That also means it was cheaper.
My guess how this will play out is the "security" team will be funded by selling data from the car. And they might be able to sell enough data to lower the price of the car. So you'll have to pay extra or remove antennas or something to drive privately.
Right now a motivated enough 3rd party team could probably find a way to stream your location data and send you spam without the mfgr's cooperation.
Think how much money quicktrip would pay to blast an audio commercial over the speakers when you're slowing down to pull into a mobil gas station with a low gas tank... stuff like that.
As one of the technological elite who can search for stuff online, read manuals, and own diagonal cutters (sadly this is all it takes to be elite) I won't have to suffer thru the experience the masses have to suffer thru.
You know how it is when you see what a non-ad-blocker internet user puts up with? Imagine that x10 in your car. Spam in your heads up display, spam commercials on the radio, your location data streamed and sold continuously, random car fires unless you send BTC to Russia, its gonna be quite the cluster F.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday July 27 2015, @07:21PM
Right now a motivated enough 3rd party team could probably find a way to stream your location data and send you spam without the mfgr's cooperation.
Think how much money quicktrip would pay to blast an audio commercial over the speakers when you're slowing down to pull into a mobil gas station with a low gas tank... stuff like that.
Do you seriously believe they could withstand the lawsuits from such a stunt?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 27 2015, @08:37PM
LOL maybe the strategy is threaten to do it unless they get money to not do it.