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patella.whack [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Guardian reports [theguardian.com] today that:

After years of formal and informal negotiations, Volkswagen has agreed to the "publication of the paper [usenix.org] [pdf] after accepting the authors’ proposal to remove one sentence from the original manuscript. Back in 2013, Volkswagen won a case in the high court [theguardian.com] to ban its publication.

A major security flaw in more than 100 car models has been exposed in an academic paper that was suppressed by a major manufacturer for two years. Academics found cars were vulnerable to ‘keyless theft’, including models from Audi, Honda and Volkswagen.

“Our attacks require close range wireless communication with both the immobiliser unit and the transponder,” the team say in the paper. “It is not hard to imagine real-life situations like valet parking or car rental where an adversary has access to both for a period of time. It is also possible to foresee a setup with two perpetrators, one interacting with the car and one wirelessly pickpocketing the car key from the victim’s pocket.”

The researchers argued they were “responsible, legitimate academics doing responsible, legitimate academic work” and their aim was to improve security for everyone.

The RAC [wikipedia.org] said electronic security systems have improved car security as vehicle theft has fallen 70% in 40 years. However, the overall decrease hides a rise in electronic hacking of vehicles, which featured in four out of 10 car thefts in London last year.

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