Gadgets Philippines – July 2019

48 july 2019 http://www.gadgetsmagazine.com.ph

Words by Marlet D. Salazar

Artwork by Zeil Romero and Simon Engracial

People are all going crazy about all the possibilities behind autonomous or self-driving cars. Engineers have been

coming up with technologies that could make this once-futuristic scenario possible.

However, everything that is good also comes with bad. Autonomous cars are hackable for the simple reason that

it operates through a network.

In an article written by Preston Gralla,

technical writer at cybersecurity company

Symantec, he quoted Brian Witten, head of

Advanced Technologies, Office of the CTO

at Symantec, as saying that various forms of

connectivity, network or wireless, are potential

attack vectors for self-driving cars. Bluetooth,

while a very useful wireless tool, poses a

lot of potential risks to autonomous cars.

Cars use Bluetooth to stream music or other

entertainment systems. Smartphones also

use this wireless connection for navigation.

According to KPMG’s “Protecting the Fleet

and the Car Business,” an average car

contains 150 million lines of code and a vast

number of wireless connections for internal

and external connections. These lines of

communication are sent over the cloud,

technology’s Achilles heel.

KPMG said in its report that conversations

have been mostly around hacking while cars,

manufacturers should also look into fleet

hacking which will bring considerable danger

in the event of a cyber attack. One suite of

autonomous fleets shares the same software,

network, and connectivity. The damage is not

only about stolen data but hackers can remotely

manipulate autonomous fleet when they gain

access to networks.

Autonomous cars

are hackable

Creating layers of security to make

self-driving cars safe

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