Connected cars might be the future but they do come with security risks, such vulnerabilities have been highlighted recently. As if reports about the Jeep hack and the Tesla hack weren’t enough we now have another one. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have been able to remotely engage a Corvette’s brakes by hacking into an insurance dongle plugged into the car’s OBD port.
Insurance companies regularly use on-board diagnostics or OBD devices to monitor speed and location, the researches have been able to exploit an OBD device and thus be able to remotely activate windshield wipers and engage or disengage the brakes on a 2013 Corvette by sending an SMS message to the dongle’s cellular radio.
Wired reports that this OBD hack isn’t limited to Corvettes or Chevrolets even though hackers were able to engage the car’s brakes at low speeds they believe the hack can be modified to access systems like steering, locks and transmission of most modern cars.
The dongle that was used to demonstrate this hack is distributed by Metromile, an insurance startup based in San Francisco, researchers have already told the startup about this vulnerability which has since been patched.
The researchers will reveal more details about this hack later today at the Usenix security conference.
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