Cybersecurity analysts warn motorists of car hacking, recommend trackers, others

In a rapidly changing technology world ravaged by criminal activities, the era of smashing of car windows and hotwiring cars appears over with the emergence of hacking to steal vehicles.

Online sources define car hacking as when someone takes control of one’s car or some of the car’s systems remotely over the internet.

The vulnerabilities of cars have been exploited for many years, but new hacks are now possible due to the now-common internet capabilities of modern vehicles.

This is done by accessing a car’s computer systems through software such as CAN bus, Bluetooth pairing, or via physical access to connectors and ports. Technological advancements seem not to have kept up with the checking of these limitations.

One of the most infamous car hacks occurred in 2015 when two security researchers killed the throttle to a Jeep.

With modern technology, carjacking, jamming, cloning key fobs, defeating immobilisers and scanners are different methods used by hackers to steal someone else’s car. In fact, research shows that in the future, motorists may have to worry about vehicle occupants being driven remotely to specific locations by hackers and robbed of their vehicle.

Recently, the Nigerian Communications Commission warned Nigerians to be wary of hackers now unlocking vehicles for purpose of stealing and other vices, saying the new trend also offered hackers an opportunity to make away with the hacked cars.

According to the NCC, the ongoing cyber-vulnerability allows a nearby hacker to unlock vehicles, start their engines wirelessly and make away with cars.

The NCC stated, “The fact that car remotes are categorised as short-range devices that make use of radiofrequency to lock and unlock cars informed the need for the commission to alert the general public on this emergent danger, where hackers take advantage to unlock and start a compromised car.

“According to the latest advisory released by the Computer Security Incident Response Team, the cybersecurity centre for the telecom sector established by the NCC, the vulnerability is a Man-in-the-Middle attack or, more specifically, a replay attack in which an attacker intercepts the RF signals normally sent from a remote…