Researchers show how a car's electronics can be taken over remotely; nyt 10mar2011

I found this article chilling. Computer scientists from UC San Diego and U Wash reported that a hacker with only moderate skills could gain remote access to someone's car and take over basic functions including control of the engine. While no known cases of this kind of hacking have been reported, it is a cold comfort. It isn't as much that I am afraid someone will cause my car to hit the brakes when I'm going 80 down 80 (I'd never do that) or even pop the lock and make off with my car when its parked in public. What I find most upsetting about this is that entire staffs of engineers worked on a system that had cell phone connectivity and never stopped to think about the kind of security that the software needed to avoid this kind of malicious tampering. No one. At least no one that management listened to.

Losing control of our cars is bad enough. But this past year has seen a flurry of reports of the security of major portions of our infrastructure like the electric grid and transportation systems. Ghansah at school has the right idea after all. Software security awareness and response is a wave that is coming ashore.