Category: Vehicle Safety

From “Police: Laptop Used to Reprogram, Steal More Than 100 Cars”
Associated Press (08/05/16) Posted by ASIS.

Police have arrested two men in Houston for allegedly using pirated computer software to steal more than 100 vehicles. Michael Arce, 24, and Jesse Zelaya, 22, focused on new Jeep and Dodge vehicles that are lucrative on the black market in Mexico, authorities said. Using a laptop computer, the men allegedly reprogrammed the targeted vehicles’ electronic security so their own key worked. The stolen vehicles relied on a common software used by auto technicians and dealers, according to Houston police officer Jim Woods. Computer security expert Yoni Heilbronn says computerization and Internet connectivity increase vehicle security in some ways, but also increase the risk of theft and malicious disabling. Automakers are cooperating to develop best practices and to share information on cybersecurity threats.

WIRED. ANDY GREENBERG.ANDY GREENBERG 08/10/2016

In 2013, when University of Birmingham computer scientist Flavio Garcia and a team of researchers were preparing to reveal a vulnerability that allowed them to start the ignition of millions of Volkswagen cars and drive them off without a key, they were hit with a lawsuit that delayed the publication of their research for two years. But that experience doesn’t seem to have deterred Garcia and his colleagues from probing more of VW’s flaws: Now, a year after that hack was finally publicized, Garcia and a new team of researchers are back with another paper that shows how Volkswagen left not only its ignition vulnerable but the keyless entry system that unlocks the vehicle’s doors, too. And this time, they say, the flaw applies to practically every car Volkswagen has sold since 1995.

See full story at  https://www.wired.com/2016/08/oh-good-new-hack-can-unlock-100-million-volkswagens/