“Hopping into an Uber or a Car2Go is a great way to get around. Unfortunately, hackers agree, exploiting weaknesses in apps to go on ‘phantom rides’ with someone else’s profile. From such trips—like a man in Australia who went on more than 30 free drives on the GoGet car-sharing platform before being arrested—to vehicle theft and taking wireless control of cars, reported attacks on smart cars have ballooned six-fold over the past four years, according to research from cyber-security platform Upstream Security Ltd. While companies have taken note, with Daimler AG’s Car2Go car sharing beefing up security measures after a limited number of accounts were hacked, risks around vehicle cybercrime are only going to get worse. Connected cars are forecast to double to 775 million by 2023, according to Juniper Research, enlarging the pool of convenience features like keyless entry, apps to turn on heating remotely and smartphone connection via bluetooth. ‘Each new service connected to a vehicle is a new potential entry point for hackers,’ Upstream wrote in a report published Monday. ‘Worst-case scenarios are loss to business earnings, theft, data privacy or property damage.’”
Source: Your High-Tech Car Is a Magnet for Hacking – Bloomberg
