Hackers discover a way to hack into your car’s remote control app

There’s so much technology out there nowadays when it comes to protecting our vehicles from theft. They range from more primitive methods of physically locking the steering wheel with a lock or to more complex systems where you can be alerted by SMS should your car’s alarm go off. However with all that being said, it appears that even complicated systems that allow drivers to use their smartphones to start their cars can be hacked and let the car thieves do the same thing.

iSec researchers Don Bailey and Mathew Solnik say they’ve figured out the protocols that some of these software makers use to remotely control the cars which in turn allows them to unlock a car and turn the engine on via a laptop. The entire process apparently took only two hours to figure out. The method is known as “war texting” which is supposedly similar to the concept of “war driving” where hackers drive about looking for data on wireless networks. It’s apparently a rather complex method which involves attempting to figure out what sort of apps the car is using, i.e. OnStar RemoteLink app.

Given that cars nowadays are starting to become more “smart” and connected, we can’t say we like the idea that even our cars can be hacked into remotely. Do we really need to install firewalls for our cars next?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Transportation
Tags: cars, Hacking