Onboard telematics vulnerable to hack, Uconnect Chryslers vulnerable

Suncor is apparently testing driverless mining trucks at one of their sites right now. I'd hate to be anywhere near there when hackers take over one of those. Apparently none of these engineers have watched Maximum Overdrive.

 

At the mine sites I work at, they take safety to the extreme. I'm not joking when I say it's to the point where we almost have to work in a hamster ball. It's so strict that you could be reported/written up for taking your gloves off to install a tiny 1/4" bolt.

 

Steve Gibson's podcast on Security Now has been warning of this possibility for a few years now. No company worries about it's customers security because of The Bottom Line, and for the sake of convenience.

 

Just read a report on Yahoo about hackers showing that they gained access to a car rolling down the road (Fiat/Chrysler I think) it was a controlled demonstration (they hacked one of their own cars with the owner behind the wheel). Turned on lights, turn signals, changed radio stations, changed the HVAC settings...all remotely. And the OnStar system on GM's have been hacked a few years ago...drivers were having their alarms going off, car shutting off while rolling down the road...

The scary thing is, my company is in the process of connecting all their POS Prostars to the remote diagnostic program thru Navistar via the q/comm...so when the engine light comes on again, they know what is wrong, then can determine if it's an urgent repair or just a 'at the earliest convenience' type thing...if my truck starts driving itself, I'm pulling the fuse on the q/c...where is my horse and buggy Samual...I'm converting to being Amish...you can't hack a horse.

 

Any time you have a remote accessible connection to the ECM, you have a hackable situation. My only surprise is that it took this long.

How long before we go back to purely mechanical operation to avoid being hacked on the road? That's the question I want answered.

 

QUOTE= supersnackbar -
"The scary thing is, my company is in the process of connecting all their POS Prostars to the remote diagnostic program thru Navistar via the q/comm...so when the engine light comes on again, they know what is wrong, then can determine if it's an urgent repair or just a 'at the earliest convenience' type thing."

I wish Freightliner and Kenworth would do this and I ask why it hasn't been done already. I hate-hate-hate that mystery check engine light. I hate it even worse when J-Pro says 'contact dealer' and the dealer refuses to ID the code. Meanwhile, my Mom's car emails her a diagnostic report. If you can put that in a GM car, you can put that in a CMV. Why do owners and drivers have to lose money sitting at a dealer for 3 days for 'diagnostics' when your system can tell you where and WHAT the fault is before you show up?

...and if you're worried about someone taking control of your system, just make it a one-way conduit of information. You can't get into it, you can only get reports.

 

Shell out couple grand for diagnostic equipment and carry it with you. Its well worth it