SATURDAY, 14 MARCH, 2015
Car brains open to attack
False sense of safety ALWYN VILJOEN
GERMAN researchers recently dis covered a security flaw in BMW’s ConnectedDrive software by spoof ing a mobile signal, intercepting all of the communications and gaining access to the car’s computer sys tem. Following this, BMW announced a recall and patch, affecting 2,2 million RollsRoyce, Mini and BMW vehicles. In order to patch this security fault, BMW enabled the secure Hy pertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), which adds a security layer to the standard HTTP to encrypt the communications. Senior engineer at South Africa’s F5 Networks Martin Walshaw warned that owners who do not take their vehicles in for the patch run the risk of having hackers open doors remotely and seize control of onboard systems for everything from the radio to air conditioning to online services. Walshaw said although the securi ty patch solves one of the prob lems by encrypting communication, data can still be intercepted. “This is particularly worrying as we prepare for more connected devices. It’s more important than ever to remember that security needs to be one of the main con siderations, and not an after thought, like in the case of BMW’s ConnectedDrive software,” he said. He said a car does not have to be connected to a computer to be vulnerable. In 2010, Yoshi Kohno from the University of Washington demonstrated that a car can be compromised by injecting malicious code via an audio CD or the radio signal received by the car. Kohno’s team were able to com pletely take over all of the on board computers in the car and by doing so could track its location, listen to conversations and even apply or disable the breaks. “In the case of connected vehi cles, the main issue is with the onboard computers that run soft ware, which, even with the best will in the world, is vulnerable. Your car radio is not a transistor radio any more, it is a computer that uses a piece of code to de code the radio signal and play your music — this is vulnerable! “By getting someone to tune in to your station you can own their car; in much the same way that spyware gets you to go to an in fected website to infect your com puter,” said Walshaw. Citing how Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox Live networks were taken down as a result of huge Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks, he warned car manufacturers must strive to se cure onboard systems to avoid be ing the next victims. He said a group of attackers could in theory infect and stop all cars of a par ticular manufacturer in a city, only releasing the brakes if they re ceived a ransom fee. — WWR.
A CALL by the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) on vehicle manufacturers to package — and price — the full range of safety design and devices for developing markets like South Africa threatens to make our cars even more expensive. This paper has in the past dismissed concerns about the entrylevel cars failing crash tests. But the chairperson for Global NCAP, Max Mosley, now feels it is un fair that poor people in developing economies “do not have access to air bags, electronic stability programmes and stateoftheart systems like lane departure warning systems”. Mosley said millions of new cars sold in middle and low income countries, like South Africa, still fail to meet the UN’s basic safety standards for front and side impacts. Speaking at the UN in Geneva during the launch of its new policy report on Tuesday, Democratising Car Safety: Road Map for Safer Cars 2020, Mosley said: “Crash test standards introduced 20 years ago for cars sold in Europe are yet to be met by many new cars, and even brandnew models, being sold today in leading middleincome coun tries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. “This is entirely unacceptable. Man ufacturers cannot continue to treat millions of their customers as second class citizens when it comes to lifesav
There is a reason why stock car race drivers do not use airbags. It’s because such ‘civilianissue’ safety equipment is designed for lowspeed collisions. Instead, racers entrust their bodies to roll cages and fourpoint harnesses. PHOTO: AP ing standards of occupant protection.” David Ward, Global NCAP secre tarygeneral and author of the new report, said the drive “for the democra
tisation of car safety” must now be extended across the world. “By 2020 at the latest, we want all new cars to meet basic standards for
both crash protection and crash avoid ance. They must have crumple zones, air bags and electronic stability control. Our new report sets out 10 clear recom mendations to transform global car safety as well as a realistic and afforda ble timetable for their implementation. “Taken together these lifesaving recommendations have the potential to prevent 10s of thousands of avoidable deaths and 100s of thousands of inju ries every year,” Ward said. It is the opinion of this author that car manufacturers will do a lot more good if they equip cars with roll cages and racing seats with harness straps. If expensive airbags worked, Mosley’s F1 racing cars would have used them, in stead of being fitting with said roll cages and harness straps. The only thing airbags and those electronic extras that Messrs Mosley and Ward would have us buy,do provide with genuine success is a false sense of security to buyers on a budget. Instead of paying more for these extras that have been shown over and over to have little, if any, effect in a crash of just 90 km/h, budget buyers should get to see graphic photos that show how the bigger vehicle will always shred and flatten the smaller one in any collision, and then be told to go out and drive very, very carefully. • We welcome readers’ comments on how to change drivers’ attitudes to make our roads safer. Comments to alwyn.viljoen@witness.co.za.
• Optional - Two-year/unlimited km warranty • 80-point mechanical check • Terms and conditions apply. E & OE • Ownership guaranteed • 7-day exchange plan • Mileage certified • Full service history PRICE MILEAGE COLOUR Polo Vivo 2013 Vivo Sedan 1,4 Trendline Tiptronic 2013 Polo Vivo 1,6 Trendline 5-Door 2014 Polo Vivo 1,4 Trendline 5-Door 2015 Polo Vivo 1,6 Comfortline 2015 Polo Vivo 1,6 Comfortline 5-Door 2015 Polo Vivo 1,6 Comfortline 5-Door
44 000 km 40 000 km 9 000 km 1 500 km 1 000 km 1 000 km
Silver Silver Red Silver White White
R132 900 R139 900 R149 900 R159 900 R159 900 R169 900
2013 Polo 1,4 Trendline 5-Door 2013 Polo 1,2 TDI BlueMotion 5-Door 2014 Polo GTI 1,4 DSG 2015 Polo Sedan 1,6 Comfortline Tiptronic 2015 Polo 1,2 TSi Highline 2015 Polo 1,2 TSI Highline 2015 Polo 1,2 TSI Trendline Golf
25 000 km 48 000 km 11 800 km 1 400 km 1 000 km 3 000 km 900 km
White White White Silver Silver Red White
R152 900 R174 900 R274 900 R249 000 R229 000 R239 000 R185 900
2012 Golf 6 GTi DSG 2012 Golf GTi DSG 2015 Golf 7 2,0 TDi Highline DSG 2015 Golf 7 1,4 TSi Comfortline DSG
59 000 km 66 000 km 23 000 km 3 500 km
Black White White Silver
R299 900 R298 900 R349 900 R319 900
2015 Amarok Double Cab DSG 132kW Other VW
13 000 km
White
R449 000
2010 Scirocco 2,0 TSi 2012 Jetta 1,4 TSi DSG 2012 Jetta 2,0 TDi 2014 Tiguan 1,4 TSI BlueMotion 2014 Passat 2,0 TDi DSG 2014 VW Transporter Single Cab TDI 2014 21st Century Beetle 1,2 TSi 2015 Touareg 3,0 TDi BlueMotion Tiptronic 2015 Tiguan 2,0 TDi
45 000 km 58 000 km 81 000 km 6 500 km 15 000 km 15 000 km 7 000 km 1 000 km 5 000 km
Silver Beige White Grey White White White White Silver
R259 900 R279 000 R229 900 R299 000 R329 900 R249 900 R259 900 R799 900 R339 000
Polo
Amarok
Baptism of fire Two new highperformance cars from Mercedes AMG will provide safety at the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship at the first Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia today and tomorrow. The drivetrain of the Official Safety Car of the FIA Formula One World Championship corresponds to the system featuring the on the roadgoing version of the AMG GT S, with a 375 kW and peak torque of 650 Newton metres from the 4,0litre V8 biturbo engine. The GT S does 0100 km/h in 3,8 seconds and attains a maximum speed of 310 km/h. It is fitted with a modified performance exhaust system for an even more striking and emotive AMG V8 engine sound. On hand in the pits is a C 63 S Estate which will stand by to provide medical care. PHOTO: QUICKPIC
Other 2008 Opel Corsa Lite Sport 94 000 km Grey R69 900 2010 Audi A3 1,8 TFSI Sportback 88 000 km Blue R169 900 Mastercars warranty not included in advertised price.
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