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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?