Can your Car be Hacked?

Making the rounds in the news are stories of cars being hacked, but how difficult and probable is it?

Usually, some level of physical access is required.

Read it online at Autonet.ca.

Favourite line:

Yes it’s possible, just so long as the attack team includes an elite hacker, probably some level of physical access to the car, a likely a surveillance team tracking you to coordinate the attack. It’s expensive. 

Plus the last paragraph, which is the big point.

 

Blog tag = Auto Security

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What is an Enhanced Driver’s Licence?

It costs about $40, and an Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) can be used instead of a passport when crossing the border by car.

However! It’s embedded with an RFID tag, meaning, protect it by using an RFID-shielding wallet, like this. Take this seriously, Saskatchewan abandoned EDLs because of the potential security breach.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

There is one major difference between the two license that you cannot see – and that’s the addition of an embedded RFID tag. 

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Delete your Phone from the Rental Car

Otherwise, the next renter sees something like above.

When you pair your phone to a car, your contacts are stored

Contacts plus I don’t know what else.  I tried to write a column about it during the winter, but couldn’t find barely any documentation about what information is saved… lots on how to connect a phone, almost none about what’s there, and how to clear it.

It was weird actually, like I’d found a hole in the internet.

Those are all my phone names, in order:

– BlackBerry
– iPhone (security through obscurity)
– Samsung Galaxy SIII

It’s a 2013 Dodge Dart, click here for my review.

 

Went Armoured Car Shopping

It’s a Conquest ‘Evade’.

Built on a Ford F550 Super Duty chassis, choose the diesel engine for the extra 140 lb-fit of torque.

400 square feet of cabin space finished with luxury finishings; night-vision cameras front and rear; humidors, Xbox, TV, fridge, a black box, a gas attack defence, name it get it.

The base model is $579,000 USD. But I bet after the extras, it’d come closer to $800K.

It’s a moving vault.

And these photos aren’t accurately showing how ENORMOUS it is, like 100″ high, 13,00o-ish lbs enormous.

The 238 L fuel tank seems small to me, spring for the upgrade.

Built by Canadian company Conquest, they’ve exported every one of their vehicles, not one has been sold to a Canadian. Lots ship to China and the Middle East.

The vehicles are handmade in their shop north of Toronto, but it’s bad form to post those photos.

The company had kept a low profile, until recently. A few weeks ago, they set-up a test-drive event downtown Toronto and invited the press. I’m the only journalist to have visited the the shop though, ha. Read Peter Cheny’s article, he took it to Kensington Market nice.

Here’s the specs for the model one lower, the ‘Knight’; couldn’t find details on this one.

Note the GVWR :O

It has electrically-charged glass, sometimes called Smart Glass – by electrically-charging the glass, the opacity can be controlled.

How I’d attack the vehicle:

To see one drive by, I’d assume there must be something very valuable inside, to be so heavily protected; therefore it might make a good target.

What about the iPad that’s running the TV via Bluetooth, how about hopping onto the vehicle’s network that way?  Maybe the vehicle is its own Hotspot?  Is there any WiFi bleeding out?  Those externally mounted cameras are probably providing a live feed to the occupants laptop or phone…

It’s highly unlikely the passenger would be without a cell phone, so it’d be worth it to capture their traffic … sitting two cars behind with a laptop and antennae, grab some email passwords; hold data for ransom; grab sensitive photos then blackmail; dealers choice.

The defence would be a Faraday cage; one that could be turned on/off. Could make a nice addition to this vehicle.

But think about it eh, how different life would be, if you had to move around in something this secure, to stay safe.

Fun to think about, wouldn’t want to live it.

 

Securing Your Car in the City

Defend against 2 types of attacks when parking your car in an urban environment.

(Last line reads: because unless the car is stolen out of your driveway, the thief now knows where you live and where you’re not. 

Favourite line:

Securing your car isn’t so much about making it theft-proof (that’s impossible); it’s more about making it invisible and undesirable.

Above – where this week’s column came from.

24 Hours readers – you’ve met me through cars, but as a hobby around here, I blog about security, mostly online.

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