Technology is pretty much everywhere – in our smart homes, in public environments and even in our cars to an increasing extent. The latter has prompted several warnings that cars can be hacked and taken over.
Here you can read about a new research project to stop cyber threats against cars.
The IT security consultant: “More technology, more attack surface”
But how easy is it to hack a car really? According to Jinny Ramsmarkhacker and IT security consultant known from the SVT program “Hackad”, it is difficult to give a sweeping answer because it depends on the car in question.
– In theory, it is possible to hack a modern car if it has a computer in it, which most cars have today in some form. Then how easy it is depends entirely on how the car is designed and how much attack surface is exposed, how much thought the manufacturer put into protecting the internal systems in the car and so on, she says to News24 and continues:
– You can compare it to breaking into a building. How difficult it is depends on a large number of factors: whether there are safety doors, protective glass, a big red button that releases angry dogs, and so on. A building with a passage system and gates, and where those who designed the building have done some kind of risk assessment, is usually more difficult to get into than Olle’s summer cottage out in the forest.
Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT
But there are still some cars that run a greater risk of being hacked.
– In general, you can think that the more advanced a car is, the greater the risk that it could be hacked in the future. More technology usually means more attack surface and more that the manufacturer has to think about to protect the systems in the car.
Read here about the items that hacker Jinny Ramsmark chooses not to have in her home.