HOW TO STAY PROTECTED WITH YOUR SMART CAR

Security Risks of Your Smart Car and How to Stay Protected

Think about a car that is constantly thinking – collecting data to better its operations and cater to your specific needs like it was built for you. A car that you can control from your smartphone and access anywhere in the world. A car that can send alerts to your next of kin in the case of any emergency.

 

While we are considering those, though, we tend to leave out the fact that this new wave of cars also threatens our security and privacy in new ways.

Where Smart Cars Falter

For all the good that they bring to the table, these cars have to be connected to the internet to work right. If there is anything you have known about the internet, it is how largely unencrypted and unsafe it can be. That is not lost on the smart car systems too.

Hacking of the infotainment system

One of the most common hacks that have been performed on smart car systems comes in the way of their infotainment system. Who would have thought something as unassuming as that – supposed to provide you a good time – might be the one to come back to bite you in the back?

To make the infotainment system work, most smart car manufactures have a protocol in place that connects the system to the smartphone of choice in the car. This is usually the same kind of protocol used to share desktops remotely – and a host of vulnerabilities in that system has been proven to be deadly.

For one, the hacker could take complete control of the car’s infotainment system to broadcast any kind of message they want. They could even leverage this system to harass the car owner by intermittently jacking their car’s players to blast full music, changing the music, and more. 

Trust us when we say you don’t want to be in a situation where a seemingly unseen hand is messing with your controls.

When talking about hacks of this nature, the simplest thing that could happen is losing access to your infotainment system. The consequences could be as grave as losing access to the car itself.

It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The same is true here, so the hacker can get into other parts of the system by just gaining access to the weakest part of the system. 

A Blackhat conference in Las Vegas showed how the heater of a Cherokee Jeep was turned on full blast by a hacker, all done remotely. The worst part about this hack was that they were even able to gain access to the transmission to cut it off.

If that can be done, best believe you are at risk of losing any part of your car within the smart ecosystem to a hacker. Yes, that includes your braking and acceleration, sensors and more.

The infotainment system is not the only entry point, though.

Third-party apps

Third-party apps that are bundled with the car might not be as safe and secure as they should be. This will leave room for exploitation and hacks by those who know what to look out for.

A more common hack is that of the smart alarm systems. These can be manipulated to not only disable the alarm system of the car but also unlock the vehicle without hassles too. In this case, the battle is not against losing control of the vehicle’s systems but the entire unit.

That said, threats do not even have to be external.

Car companies obtaining your data 

Companies these days are highly data-hungry, and they will do anything to lay hands on the huge amount of data that your smart ride is giving off. Rated at about 25GB of data every hour or more, that is surely a sweet spot to let anyone in on at all. 

What you might not know is that you have directly or indirectly signed over your data to these car companies when they were completing the sale of your car. Some others would not even need your express permission to collect certain data.

The issue here is not only that the data is being collected, but what kind of data is being collected? By extension, what is the data used for? Who gets to see it, and how is it stored? Most importantly, what happens to your data in the case of a breach?

Staying Protected

Like we said in the opening part of this piece, smart cars are here to stay now. While you should enjoy what they have to offer you, you should also put in measures to ensure your safety and privacy.

Some of the recommended tips here are:

• Choosing strong passwords – when creating accounts on your car’s interfaces, use a strong password. Online password generating tools will help you get something that’s near impossible to crack
• Update your firmware – smart car manufacturers will send out firmware updates to the software running the car. Make sure you update the software regularly to get rid of security issues
• Update your apps – the apps on the smart car’s interface are also potential entry points. Keep them updated regularly
• Encrypt your connection – an unencrypted connection makes it easy for hackers to gain access and even install the malware in your car. You can simply use a secure VPN, layer your internet connection over it and be sure of an encrypted network.
• Turn off Bluetooth – especially when not in use. You will be surprised to know that Bluetooth functionality has been used to hack many cars too. 
• Secure your devices – sometimes, the fault is not with your sweet, smart ride. If your devices are infected with a piece of malware and you connect them to the car, you run the risk of transmission. Secure your devices and be sure they are safe for connection.

Or, you could just go the old-fashioned way and pick traditional cars without all the new fancy additions. That works too.