It’s gone round and round and round, now cars have Bluetooth, that they can get viruses like Cabir, I’m sorry but if an Anti-virus company like F-Secure can’t infect a car with a virus, I don’t have much hope for the others. The rumours came from a Lexus story in SCMagazine (The story is no longer there, and I don’t have a mirror sadly).

So we got a Toyota Prius to test out the myth. Credit has to be given to Toyota for trusting their systems enough to actually lend the car for us for such testing. According to Toyota, this Prius model had identical in-car Bluetooth systems with the Lexus models, so it was suitable for our tests. This Bluetooth functionality is intended to, for example, transfer the phone book from the car owners mobile phone to the built-in phone of the car.

Source: F-Secure

And to be honest, those that benefit from this viral FUD is the anti-virus companies right? So when an anti-virus company comes out and says that it’s not possible, you know it’s not even a vague threat, as if it was, they would come out with some new super car anti-virus protection version 2006.

After fixing the battery problem, we continued tests and Toyota Prius performed admirably. We managed to find one minor issue with the system (a corrupted phone name would freeze the on-board display), but otherwise the Prius Bluetooth system was far more stable than our test phones and PCs. We had to reboot our test systems several times as their Bluetooth systems died on us, while Toyota Prius just kept going.

Seems pretty solid right?

Reuters decided to reinstate the FUD for some reason, pay-off from an AV firm maybe?

Here’s a new excuse for not getting to work on time on a Monday morning: My car caught a virus.

Car industry officials and analysts say hackers’ growing interest in writing viruses for wireless devices puts auto computer systems at risk of infection.

Source: MSN

Not that an anti-virus firm would have anything to gain from spreading such rumours right?

As carmakers turn to computer security, a lucrative market could open for antivirus firms, which have been touting cell phone security for years without notable success. “People will not use the protection before there are several big epidemics. After that they will understand that it is dangerous to use phones to get online, that you need to be protected,” Kaspersky said.

Next up, Kaspersky Car Edition?

Hacking cars, what next? I have fears for the IPv6 generation (if it every happens), when every toaster and light bulb has an IP address, yeah…I’m gonna hack your house then and make your lights blink.

High-tech thieves are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to stealing automobiles equipped with keyless entry and ignition systems. While many computer-based security systems on automobiles require some type of key ‘mechanical or otherwise’ to start the engine, so-called ‘keyless’ setups require only the presence of a key fob to start the engine.

The expert gang suspected of stealing two of David Beckham’s BMW X5 SUVs in the last six months did so by using software programs on a laptop to wirelessly break into the car’s computer, open the doors, and start the engine.

Poor Beckham, he got had twice.

I wonder how simplistic the system they are using is? 20 minutes to break the encryption? A simple XOR or something, it must be.

“It’s difficult to steal cars with complex security, but not impossible. There are weaknesses in any system” Tim Hart of the Auto Locksmith Association told the U.K’s Auto Express magazine. “At key steps the car’s software can halt progress for up to 20 minutes as part of its in-built protection” said Hart.

Because the decryption process can take a while ‘up to 20 minutes, according to Hart’ the thieves usually wait to find the car in a secluded area where it will be left for a long period. That is believed to be what happened to Mr. Beckham & the crooks followed him to the mall where he was to have lunch, and went to work on his X5 after it was parked.

I’ve heard an experiment was done by some students at John Hopkins, they connected 16 FPGAs together at a total cost of under $3,500. Texas Instruments provided them with 5 DST tags whose keys they did not know. The 16-way parallel cracker was able to recover all 5 keys in well under 2 hours.

Source: Left Lane News