A U.S. senator drives from Capitol Hill to her home in Virginia, listening to the CD a constituent gave her. Going with the speed of traffic at 60 miles per hour, her brakes suddenly engage. Then an SUV rams the politician’s sedan from behind, killing her on impact. It turns out an extremist assassin had hijacked the car’s controls after infecting the CD with malicious code that penetrated the vehicle’s network.
In another scenario, two intelligence agents driving to CIA headquarters get a call from their branch chief, which the driver answers on a hands-free Bluetooth connection. After hanging up, the agents brainstorm how to pursue the tip they’ve just received while a foreign intelligence operative records their conversation. The adversary had cracked the Bluetooth system to bug the in-car microphone.
Think about cyber threats and probably the last thing that comes to mind is your car. But cars can expose personal information through features like OnStar and Ford SYNC. Hackers can unlock the doors, kill the engine and deactivate the starter. For now, the chances of such exploits happening at this point are slim, given the sophisticated technical skills required. But they will become easier as car systems become more intertwined with commercial communications networks.
