LAS VEGAS—Two security researchers at Defcon 21 here on Friday revealed the methods they used to hack into car computers and take over the steering, acceleration, brakes, and other important functions.
Charlie Miller, a security engineer at Twitter, and Chris Valasek, director of security intelligence at IOActive, spent ten months researching how they could hack into the network of embedded computer systems called electronic control units (ECUs) used in modern cars and see what they could do once they gained access to it.
Their test cars were a 2010 Ford Escape and a 2010 Toyota Prius.
Some of the things they were able to achieve by hooking a laptop to the ECU communications network and injecting rogue signals into it included disabling the breaks while the car was in motion, jerking the steering wheel, accelerating, killing the engine, yanking the seat belt, displaying bogus speedometer and fuel gauge readings, turning on and off the car's lights, and blasting the horn.
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