CIA's alleged plan to conduct 'mission' on cars causes concern

This article is more than 12 months old

Mar 10, 2017 06:00 am

SAN FRANCISCO WikiLeaks documents showing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) considered a "mission" against connected car technology underscores the auto industry's concern that the science behind the next generation of vehicles could be turned against them.

Cyber security is considered key to the roll-out of tomorrow's self-driving and today's connected cars, which resemble computers on wheels with a host of communications routes hackers can target.

Security experts cite the hypothetical example of an attack on an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or brakes, in which the passenger would have no way to gain manual control of the car.

WikiLeaks documents show the CIA citing "vehicle systems"and a car operating system from QNX, owned by Blackberry, as "potential mission areas" for the its Embedded Devices Branch to consider.

The QNX system is used by most global automakers and provides a "comprehensive" security model to mitigate attacks. - REUTERS