Technology has come to help us and give us more security on a daily basis. Therefore, cell phones have facial recognition and approach payment; banks use our digital; and some cars have “vehicle internet” (or IoV).
However, security in the latter is an aspect that has caused concern. Read on and understand.
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LoV is a network of cars or other vehicles that can exchange data over the internet. In this way, the transport becomes more autonomous, efficient and theoretically safer.
In practice, this technology helps to identify roadblocks, traffic jams, pedestrians, among others. However, malicious people can use it in a harmful way.
The smart keys of vehicles that have this technology can be a gateway to the systems, leaving users more vulnerable.
Anyone who has a car with a smart key knows how it works: to drive it, you have to press a button on the key that turns off the car's immobilizer system. That is, without her, the car doesn't even leave the place.
However, hackers can “trick” the car into thinking the key is nearby. For this, they only use a signal relay, which costs approximately R$ 620.
Another method, a little more advanced, makes a "CAN injection attack" (Controller Area Network, in the acronym translated from English). As published by the BBC, the hacker manages to make a direct connection to the car's internal communication system.
The way to do this is usually under the vehicle. Then, in a short time, criminals remove the car's bumper, place the CAN injector and gain access to the system.
From there, they manage to send false messages, which confuse the vehicle's electrical system, making it think that the key is nearby. So criminals take the car although.
Smart car makers are racing against time, testing new ways to shield consumers from this type of theft. Otherwise, people will stop buying vehicles that have this technology.
A strategy to stay safer, as published by the BBC, is not to trust any messages received by the car and check each one of them before giving ok.
Another way is to install a hardware security module in the car's system. It will cause all data to be encrypted and create digital signatures for all messages.
Graduated in Social Communication at the Federal University of Goiás. Passionate about digital media, pop culture, technology, politics and psychoanalysis.