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The 37 Models of Mercedes in Chart Form

(click to enlarge)

Left to right = least to most expensive

Anything with AMG = their performance line – as in – good as it gets

All 37 vehicles are now available with optional 4MATIC – All-wheel drive – get it.

 

 

BMW is 1st Automaker to Admit a Security Flaw

Hat tip to BMW – they may be one of the first automakers to publicly admit to a security flaw in their vehicles.

What Happened

The potential breach was found in BMW’s ConnectedDrive infotainment system.

In Germany, the ADAC (their CAA) discovered a potential security gap during data transmission.

It would have allowed an attacker to use ConnectedDrive to remotely unlock the car’s doors, then potentially access the SIM card to control some of the vehicle’s functions (not critical ones though, like steering or braking.)

What BMW did

They promptly sent out a mass software patch to over 2.2 million vehicles, switched to using HTTPS (like a bank) to encrypt traffic between their servers and the vehicles, and then even posted a press release about it, here.

Why this is meaningful

It’s not the first time an automaker has experienced some sort of potential security breach.

What’s different is how they handled it – swiftly, and openly talked about it, something which often only happens when the manufacturer is publicly shamed.

 

 

Life Admin & a Possible Speech Took Over Today

So there will be no big blog update.

Tuesday’s are my news slot at the paper, then I had to deal with all the Life Admin that’d piled up (Life Admin – the stuff you must maintain to keep a life running smoothing, such as paying bills, managing relationships, errands, and my hair’s not actually blonde eh.)

So much of today was spent on the phone. Love the phone. Like how I loop my headset around my ears?

On a day like this it’s tough to flip seamlessly to writing brain, especially if it’s technical and requires deep focus, topics like the technical differences between Static VS Variable AWD, or the math behind having a 25-character password.

Then I got real pre-occupied with this:

 

    BSides Vancouver

is a 2-day, high-end gathering for information security professionals, hackers, coders and the greater tech community, coming up in March.

I’m currently at 80% yes. The speech just like, flew of my fingers, and the slide presentation deck began to piece itself together WAIT, I’m going to do a word count on it hang on…. 1,141… 15 sub-topics… increase that to 85%.

Blog tag = Social Engineering (20)

That would mean my first ever speaking engagement is in front of 250 people, that are really smart like, the security crowd is discerning… got nervous just typing that.

Going to sleep on it, I always do on big decisions…. to debut in front of 250 people, plus video lives forever online…

Disappearing back into daydream-plotting mind, TTYT

Blog tag = This Week’s Flowers (15)