White hat hackers expose flaws in automakers’ cybersecurity

Automotive News reports, white hat hackers broke into several automakers’ customer and back-end systems. Such as BMW, Ferrari, Ford, Jaguar-Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Rolls-Royce.

The finding is a follow-up to the group’s late-year revelation of SiriusXM’s telematics service vulnerabilities that led to breaches in Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and Toyota model lines. 

Due to the self-imposed 90-day ban, the last wave of vulnerabilities allowed hackers access to extensive consumer data and internal administration features. The moratorium, which takes its cue from the Google Project Zero security research team’s guidelines, is intended to convey the intention to reveal while also giving vendors time to remedy any security flaws.

Automotive News was informed by Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Reviver, and Spireon that the breaches had been fixed

Marcus Kabel, a spokesman for Porsche Cars North America, said the company continuously monitors its systems. “We take any signs of weaknesses very seriously, he added. Preventing unauthorized access to our vehicles’ systems by outside parties is our top responsibility.”

Sam Curry, an Omaha, Neb., security engineer, claims his research was able to remotely access millions of models from various OEMs. Curry said that the organization was able to hijack any Ferrari customer account as one of the breaches. The BMW and Mercedes-Benz intrusions accessed data that black hat hackers might have used to obtain extensive access to those automakers’ internal processes. 

Curry claimed that he and his fellow car security experts will now concentrate on flaws in the services that big telecommunications companies give to the industry that are tied to automobiles.

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