Technology
‘Car Hacking’ Just Got Real: In Experiment, Hackers Disable SUV on Busy Highway
Security consultants Don Bailey, left, and Mathew Solnik of iSEC Partners demonstrate with a computer how they force cars with certain alarm systems to unlock their doors and start their engines by sending them text messages, in San Francisco, Aug. 16, 2011. (Eric Risberg/AP Photo)
(The Washington Post) – It was a driver’s worst nightmare.
Andy Greenberg was speeding along a busy interstate in St. Louis recently when he suddenly lost control of his vehicle. The accelerator abruptly stopped working. The car crawled to a stop. As 18-wheelers whizzed by his stalled vehicle, Greenberg began to panic.
His car hadn’t spun out on black ice, however. It hadn’t been hit by another vehicle or experienced engine trouble.
It had been hacked.
Greenberg, a senior writer for Wired magazine, had asked Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek — two “white hat” or altruistic hackers — to show him what they could do.
So, while Greenberg drove down the highway, Miller and Valasek sat on Miller’s couch 10 miles away and played God.
