When it comes to hacking of autonomous vehicles, it seems that somebody taking control of your car’s steering and acceleration need not be your main concern.
As reported by Autonews, a growing number of experts say that car hackers won’t necessarily be interested in creating havoc on the roads and will simply look to download as much data about you as they can.
“Hacking into a car and controlling it without visuals would be a psychotic thing to do; few people would want to do that,” explains Craig Smith, a security research director for Rapid7, a cyber-security company. “The ones that would invest a lot of time and energy are usually after data.”
Di Ma, a professor at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, added that criminal hacking is a certainty in the soon-to-be connected-car environment, while Lear Corp cyber-security VP Andre Weimerskirch said that money will be a much stronger motivator than the need to physically attack somebody.
“Attackers will try to find exploits that provide a financial incentive, and it seems that safety-critical attacks don’t provide any obvious monetary return,” stated Weimerskirch.
Also, according to him, hackers could make a profit by remotely unlocking and stealing a vehicle, charge the owners a ransom in return for regaining control of their car, hack into cellphones connected via USB ports and steal credit card information, or simply use location data and apps to break into the driver’s home.
“Conversations in the back of a limo can hold a lot of value,” he said. “That’s much more interesting for an attacker.”
According to IHS Automotive, 55% of all new vehicles sold globally will be connected by the year 2020, and about half the cars on the road will have some type of connectivity available to them.
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