Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
eWEEK.com
Search
eWEEK.com
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    Car Hackers Discuss What It Takes to Secure Autonomous Vehicles

    By
    SEAN MICHAEL KERNER
    -
    August 9, 2018
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Charlie Miller Chris Valasek

      LAS VEGAS—Three years ago at the Black Hat conference, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek (pictured) detailed flaws in Chrysler cars that led to the recall of millions of vehicles. The pair have now changed their focus from offense to defense, detailing ways to help secure autonomous vehicles at the Black Hat USA 2018 event on Aug. 9.

      Miller and Valasek now both work for GM’s Cruise autonomous ride sharing vehicle service, helping engineers to build secure systems. In speaking at Black Hat, the researchers said their goal is getting information out in the open for the betterment of the automobile industry.

      “We want everyone to be secure,” Miller said.

      There are different levels of automation when it comes to autonomous vehicles. Level 1 is a car that has some driver assistance features, but the driver is still responsible for all vehicle actions. Level 2 automation are cars that can control steering and speed, such as Tesla’s autopilot feature.

      Miller and Valasek said that Level 3 automation is where the vehicle controls all elements of driving and the driver has no obligation other than than taking over in the event of unknown conditions. Level 4 automation is where the two researchers have focused their efforts, on securing a car that is entirely automated without the need for a driver. An example of a level 4 autonomous vehicle is GM’s Cruise ride sharing service. Waymo and Uber, are also developing autonomous ride sharing vehicles with level 4 automation.

      Hardware

      Autonomous vehicles are based on existing production cars with added sensor and computing packages. The researchers noted that cars are very much a data center on wheels, complete with large amounts of computing power.

      Miller said that there are millions of lines of code on autonomous vehicles, but from a security perspective the concern is about the inputs and outputs and making sure the vehicle systems can stay in a known good state and not be tampered with.

      “It would be a shame if a customer’s info leaks, but it would be a tragedy if steering failed,” Valasek said.

      Risks

      One risk that media reports have highlighted is the potential to trick an autonomous vehicle’s sensors. For example, painting over a stop sign, so a car won’t see the stop sign and not stop. According to the two researchers, those types of sensor tricking attacks won’t actually work against level-4 autonomous vehicles.

      Miller explained that autonomous vehicles have multiple types of sensors as well as GPS. He said that that cars all also benefit from highly accurate mapping done by the vendors, so the cars have more accurate location information than just simply relying on GPS or a single sensor.

      Looking Forward

      The two researchers want autonomous car makers to focus on the core elements of security that are already well known in enterprise data centers.

      The researchers suggested that car makers continuously work to reduce the attack surface by removing any code or connections that are not needed. The use of encryption for data at rest and in motion is also a core recommendation from Miller and Valasek. They also advocate using Hardware Security Modules (HSM) to store encryption keys. 

      All updates should be signed, as should all communications in the vehicle to validate authenticity. The researchers also suggest that vendors have a clear separation of systems in the car so that less trusted devices should not be able to talk to more trusted devices. The two researchers have no illusion about making a car unhackable either, but they do want to help make cars as secure as possible.

      “We just want to make hacking an autonomous car so hard, that [cyber-attackers] will just want to go and hack something else,” Miller said.

      Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      EWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      ZEUS KERRAVALA - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      WAYNE RASH - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Info

      © 2020 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×