3 ms·

Answered here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8049671 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8049671 Also, what's to stop it from happening now? Remember

• eslaught 12y ago
  It does happen, as is the point of your post. You even left out one of the bigger attacks, 9/11, which deeply impacted the US. You can argue about why, but you can't dispute the fact that they do in fact happen. The main difference is (and/or will be) that with better automation, an intelligent hacker can execute such an attack remotely, with minimal risk to their person. Just as is the situation today with malware on the internet, we'll be enabling an entirely new class of remote attacks which have the potential to affect many people. We've learned enough from malware to know that this turns into a cat and mouse game with arbitrary depth. The issue is not whether this situation will get away from us, but when and how.
  • dm2 12y ago
    Well, without physical access to the vehicle it seems unlikely that malware could allow unlimited control of a vehicle. Ensuring firmware is genuine and that certain rules are stored on a read-only part of the memory would be helpful, such as don't hit people, turn off vehicle if issued a certain command. It is good to think about these situations to enable safeguards to be preemptively put in place. Autonomous vehicles aren't necessarily able to be remotely controlled, the computers and guidance systems are built into the vehicle, waypoints that would be located on roads would be used, which would be unable to cause damage other than the goods not being delivered and the truck being in the wrong place. Even after 9/11 planes are still somewhat of a threat if the attacker is determined enough. Spend years becoming a pilot or flight crew and you'd have access to the cockpit, after that there's not much limit to how much damage you could cause. There is some protection at certain spots though, the White House is fairly safe: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/wh-missile/pict0.jpg http://cryptome.org/eyeball/wh-missile/pict0.jpg
    • csandreasen 12y ago
      Security researchers have already had some degree of success performing remote attacks of cars already on the market through OnStar/Bluetooth. http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers...
      • dm2 12y ago
        The exploits in the article you linked to requires physical access and modification. This is about bluetooth and CD sound hacks, hopefully those have been locked down on future models since it's been known a while. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/business/10hack.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/business/10hack.html
        • csandreasen 12y ago
          I think we might be violently agreeing here. :) The article I linked to links to the article you linked to about halfway down.