The growing integration of wireless technologies in automobiles has prompted some well-publicized fears about hackers taking control of cars to disable brakes and to take over navigation, steering, acceleration, tire pressure and other systems in a vehicle.
That prompted Sen. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) last week to ask what automakers are doing to protect vehicles from wireless hacking threats and privacy intrusions.
In a letter ( download PDF) to CEOs of 20 of the world's largest automakers, Markey asked a series of detailed technical questions about the vulnerability of vehicles to wireless security and privacy threats. Among the companies asked to respond are Ford, Toyota, Volvo, BMW, Chrysler, Mercedes, and Nissan.
The letter pointed to a recent study by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in which two researchers demonstrated how they could take control of a vehicle through the controller area network (CAN) used by devices in a car to communicate with each other.
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