CNN 'Most Trusted Name in News' Finally Admits Cars are Hackable, No Mention of Hastings

Tesla Dash – Source

Recently Laurie Segall, reporting for CNN, managed to interview two men who have been experimenting with hacking cars while hardwired.

“There are lots of computers in your car and they all have to talk to each other […] so is what we did is we figured out how they talked to each other and then we pretended we were various pieces of the car and told the other pieces to do things”, said one of the hackers during the interview.

In one instance the hackers were able to tell the car that they were the “mechanic” and that they wanted to “bleed the brakes”, causing the car not to stop, they told CNN.

Another test shows that the hackers were even able to crank the steering wheel hard to the left (remotely) while the vehicle was being driven down the road at 40 MPH.

So far the tests have shown that hackers have to be physically jacked into the car’s computer to take control. However, some are now questioning more modern vehicle platforms, like Tesla’s, which are connected to a wireless network via AT&T or other mobile means.

Despite consumer concerns, some car manufactures seem to be on the ball as some are planning sophisticated firewalls on future productions.

Jose Pagliery reporting for CNN Money wrote:

Continental, one of the world’s three major auto parts suppliers, is partnering with IBM and Cisco to make firewalls that control the information flow between the car’s devices. Until it gets security all figured out, the German company is holding back from adding full Internet connectivity features, such as real-time information from the engine that alerts the local car shop ahead of time.

“Without having a good firewall or security in place, I can’t go to the auto manufacturer and say, ‘Let me have access to information from engine management,’” said Tejas Desai, Continental’s head of interior electronics for North America.

For their part, car manufacturers are working on these problems too.

Ford hardware has built-in firewalls to prevent malicious tampering, and the company has a team of noble hackers constantly probing for weaknesses.

Toyota does all that too, plus it embeds security chips in the tiny computers throughout the car, narrowing how they communicate and lessening the chance of outsider interference. The company even has forward-thinking plans this year to visit the world’s largest hacker conference, Black Hat.

Youtuber Mark Dice, who reported on car hacking a year ago, couldn’t resist chiming in on the subject going on to mention the late journalist Michael Hastings may have been car hacked, as his car was found exploded into a fireball on a California street with the engine fully removed from the vehicle’s chassis.

And here’s DARPA discussing how easy it is to hack cars, video from over two years ago:

“Just don’t mention Michael Hastings. We don’t want to sound like conspiracy theorists”, Dice said, poking fun at CNN, who Dice refers to as the “Communist News Network”

Related Activist Post Article:
Modern Cars Can Be Hacked — Boats and Planes Next?

Shepard Ambellas is the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News and the maker of SHADE the Motion Picture. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook. Shepard also appears on the Travel Channel series America Declassified.