In recent years cars and other motor vehicles have become increasingly hi-tech. With the growing importance of computer technology in motor vehicles, hackers are increasingly turning their attention to our cars. The Flemish ethical hacker Tom Van de Wiele says that this will only get worse in the future. He calls on car manufacturers to take responsibility and ensure that the electronic parts they get from their suppliers are up to scratch when it comes to cyber security.
Home News
Flemish ethical hacker warns “The more technology there is in your car the greater the risk that it will be stolen.”
Published:
“Currently they simply past the buck to their suppliers. The more electrically-power cars that there are, the greater the amount of technology there is in the vehicles we drive”.
“New hi-tech cars offer greater comfort and luxury, however with this comes a greater risk of hacking. The Fleming Tom Van de Wiele works in the Danish capital Copenhagen for WithSecure, a company that is paid by other companies to detect weaknesses in systems’ cybersecurity by attempting to hack them. He told VRT News that the risk of hacking increases the more a vehicle is depended on computer software.
Recent waves of car thefts in several American cities were down to thieves being able to hack vehicles’ software. The so-called “Kia Boys” mainly targeted vehicles made by Kia and Hyundai. They shared videos on the social media platform TikTok that showed how they were easily able to hack a car’s software.
“They were able to do this due to a fault in a series of vehicles produced by these manufacturers. It was possible to remove a piece of plastic from under their steering column and then just plug in any random USB cable”. The car thought that it was at the car dealership’s garage and the car thief was able to simply drive away with it.
More than 1,000 Kia’s and Hyundai’s were stolen in this way. The companies say that this is not an issue here in Europe as different software is used in the vehicles that have been sold here. But shouldn’t the manufacturers have realised that there might have been issues with the vehicles that they sold in the United States?
Tom Van de Wiele told VRT News that “The problem is that car manufacturers possible work with hundreds of suppliers. These supplies carry out tests on their individual products, but tests are not carried out on combinations of various parts. For example, in this case no one had noticed that you could both remove the plastic cover and could plug in a USB cable to make the car think that a mechanic was working on it.”
Hackers have not only targeted vehicles made by Kia and Hyundai. Cars that don’t have keys are also easy prey for tech-savvy car thieves.
“With most modern cars the key is permanently in communication with the vehicle. If the key moves too far way the doors shut automatically. But thieves use a signal amplifier whereby the signal from your car keys can be picked up by the vehicle while it is parked outside you house.
They are able to get into the car and drive away without damaging it”, Tom Van de Wiele said. Signal amplifiers can be bought on the black market for between 20 and 50 euro.
Should we be worried?
But should everyone that uses a vehicle that doesn’t have an ignition key be worried that it might be stolen in this way?
“Not every vehicle reacts like this and moreover every car uses a different frequency or has a different security system”, Tom Van de Wiele told VRT News.
“We are now seeing that manufacturers are developing systems with which you can, for example, see how long it takes before a key reacts to a signal. It it takes too then it is presumed that someone is doing something suspicious. Manufacturers that only produce electrically powered cars are often a lot further on when it comes to this kind of technology. They make most of their own technology themselves and are much less dependent on suppliers”.
“The largest electric car companies, such as Tesla or the Chinese car manufacturer BYD Auto are aware of the issues and expect that there will be leaks, simply because electric cars are basically computers on wheels. These manufactures and others are leading in the way in field of car security.” Both pin codes and fingerprint identification are being used by electric car manufacturers as security measures for the vehicles they produce.
However, there is no such thing as 100% security. The question here is how manufacturers ensure that their vehicles are as secure as possible. Tom Van de Wiele says that the issue is that manufacturers pass the buck to their suppliers when it comes to security. The ethical hacker adds that it is also important that we as consumer understand the risks and use our common sense. We also “should not be technology-shy”.