BMW Closes Security Loophole To Prevent Unwanted Vehicle Break-Ins

The modern day vehicle is chock full of electronics, so much so that their maintenance would require careful calibration as well as specialized equipment – which translates to a higher cost in the long run. Well, vehicles have also gotten “smarter” thanks to the kind of algorithms and systems that they have, and in the case of Tesla, a firmware update – changes in code, essentially, has resulted in a performance boost, now how about that? If one were to look at the flipside, such code could have flaws – and in the case of BMW, a security flaw did exist that made 22 million of its vehicles a potential candidate for break-ins.

Thankfully, this particular security loophole has already been fixed, which means that the German automaker’s BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce models which come equipped with its ConnectedDrive technology will no longer be vulnerable to being exploited. It was German automobile club ADAC that picked up this flaw last summer, and claimed that hackers could very well use a fake cellphone base station in order to intercept network traffic from the car, before lowering the windows or opening the doors. While this is all in theory, there has been no officially reported case of such a break-in ever happening. BMW spokeswoman Silke Brigl did mention that hackers would not have the ability to start or stop the engine, either.

Well, better late than never, right?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Transportation
Tags: bmw, patch, Update