FEATURE: IOT SECURITY
IMAGINE A HACKER, KNOWING THAT YOU’ RE TRAVELLING FAR FROM HOME, SELLS THAT INFORMATION TO A CRIMINAL GANG WHO THEN BREAKS INTO YOUR HOME, OR USES YOUR ONLINE CREDENTIALS TO EMPTY YOUR BANK ACCOUNT laptops and smart phones an IoT device like an autonomous car. For instance:
Ransomware: Ransomware is certainly on the rise on PCs and mobile phones. But driverless cars represent an almost ideal target. Imagine the following scenario: a hacker uses the in-car display to inform the driver that his car has been immobilized and that a ransom must be paid to restore the vehicle to normal operation. While a laptop or tablet may be restored relatively easily with potentially no damage, assuming backups are available, a car is a very different story. The owner may be far from home( the ransomware could be programmed to only launch when the car is a predetermined distance from its home base.)
Naturally, few dealerships would be familiar with resolving this sort of problem, and specialist help would most likely be required to reset affected components. The cost of such a ransom is expected to be very high, and will likely take time. In the meantime, the vehicle may have to be towed.
So the question is, what is the amount of the ransom demand that we expect to see? Estimates are that it is likely to be significantly higher than for traditional computer ransomware, but probably less than any related repair costs so that the car owner is tempted to pay.
Spyware: Perhaps a more attractive target for hackers is collecting data about you through your car. Driverless cars collect massive amounts of data, and know a lot about you – including your favourite destinations, your travel routes, where you live, how and where you buy things, and even the people you travel with. Imagine a hacker, knowing that you’ re travelling far from home, sells that information to a criminal gang who then breaks into your home, or uses your online credentials to empty your bank account.
That last risk exists because your driverless and connected vehicle is likely to become a gateway for any number of electronic transactions, such as automatic payment of your daily morning coffee, or parking charges, or even repairs. With sensitive information stored in the car, it becomes another attack vector to obtain your personal information. And with RFIDs and Near Field Communications( NFC) becoming www. intelligentcio. com INTELLIGENTCIO
35