Kill Switch: Why Connected Cars Can Be Killing Machines and How to Turn Them Off
For the past five months Consumer Watchdog worked with a group of car industry technologists and engineers concerned about the danger of Internet connectivity in modern non-self-driving cars and their susceptibility to hacking. The result is this investigative report exposing the perils of “connected cars” without compromising the identity of the industry insiders, who could lose their jobs as a result.
The report that follows, “Kill Switch,” reflects the consensus concerns of these industry technologists about the security design flaws in the new fleet of connected cars. With tens of millions of these Internet-connected cars already operating on American roads, these automobiles will comprise the majority of new cars by the end of the year. This report is presented as a basis for conversation and new security protocols.
Despite working on the problem for more than a decade, carmakers have proven incapable of creating Internet-connected vehicles that are immune to hacking, which is the only standard that can keep consumers safe. With connected cars rapidly overtaking the market, consumers will soon have no haven from the online connections that threaten them.
To protect the public, carmakers should install 50-cent “kill switches” in every vehicle, allowing consumers to physically disconnect their cars from the Internet and other wide- area networks. Otherwise, if a 9/11-like cyber-attack on our cars were to occur, recovery would be difficult because there is currently no way to disconnect our cars quickly and safely. Mandatory “kill switches” would solve that problem.
https://www.consumerwatchdog.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/KILL%20SWITCH%20%207-29-19_0.pdf
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