Jeep owners urged to update their cars after hackers take remote control | Technology | The Guardian:

A security hole in FCA’s Uconnect internet-enabled software allows hackers to remotely access the car’s systems and take control. Unlike some other cyberattacks on cars where only the entertainment system is vulnerable, the Uconnect hack affects driving systems from the GPS and windscreen wipers to the steering, brakes and engine control.
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The hack was demonstrated by Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, two security researchers who previous demonstrated attacks on a Toyota Prius and a Ford Escape. Using a laptop and a mobile phone on the Sprint network, they took control of a Jeep Cherokee while Wired reporter Andy Greenberg was driving, demonstrating their ability to control it and eventually forcing it into a ditch.

Unlike the majority of hacking attempts on cars, the vulnerability within the Uconnect system allows cybercriminals to take control of the car remotely, without the need to make physical contact with the car.


I'm not sure why this is so complicated. The Internet is not the only network on Earth. Please, only put things on the net you don't mind someone else viewing. Have one PC with all your scanned docs and tax returns that you keep off of the Internet at all times. OMB... here's a note: Don't store gov't employees' info on machines networked to the Internet. Jeep: Don't share networks for systems that include live driving on cars that can network with the 'net.

The Internet is very convenient. That doesn't make its use intelligent. Erecting barriers to entry is often good, folks.

I'm predicting a huge increase in private, alternate networks in the next 15 years. And I'm also predicting that people will still stupidly connect them to the conventional Internet at the new networks' edges, rendering the disconnectedness accidentally moot.

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