Chevrolet Corvette Hacked Through Tracking Device
We’ve all seen the commercials from insurance companies like Progressive advertising tracking devices to put in your cars for a chance to get lower insurance rates based on good driving. Many Uber drivers also have company-suggested monitoring tools in their cars for insurance purposes, and in March the White House ordered monitoring devices to be put in government vehicles to help improve efficiency.
Unfortunately, it looks like these devices can be hacked and used to control parts of your car.
A team from the University of California at San Diego brought their research to the Usenix Security Conference to show how the hack was accomplished.
Their demonstration vehicle of choice was a 2013 Chevrolet Corvette, and it’s amazing how much they could do by just texting a little device plugged into the car. Coded text messages were sent to the devices, which are always connected to a network to be able to report their readings, and were translated into commands to the car’s computer.
Check out the video of the hack below:
As you can see, the researchers were able to turn lights on and off, as well as activate the windshield wipers, all with complex text messages. Perhaps one of the most drastic things they were able to do while exploiting the weaknesses in the device was applying and cutting the brakes. Each dongle, as they are called, allows for hackers to infiltrate a decent list of vehicle functions.
The good news? The brakes can only be hacked at low speeds due to the vehicle’s programming. One of the particular brands of dongle that the UC San Diego team worked with, Metromile, was contacted by the researchers and has since issues a security patch to keep cars safe.
News Source: Wired
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