Last year, a team of researchers at the US Center for Automotive Embedded Systems Security revealed how automobile computer systems could be hacked via the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) port, an access point typically used by engineers to download data on the vehicle's health, reports New Scientists.
Through this, they were able to hijack the car, allowing the researchers to disable the brakes, turn the engine on and off, and control electrical systems such as the odometer, lights, climate control, radio and locks.
Building on this, a team of security experts from the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Washington, led by Stefan Savage, have now identified a variety of weak points through which hackers can gain access to a vehicle's computer systems remotely.
In one example, cellphone hardware installed in luxury cars was attacked, allowing the team to inject malicious code into the car's electronic controls.
