Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/573382
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2015 Motoring 43 Security flaw affecting more than 100 car models exposed by scientists A major security flaw in more than 100 car models has been exposed in an academic paper that was suppressed by a major manufac- turer for two years. Flavio Garcia, a computer scien- tist at the University of Birming- ham, and two colleagues from a Dutch university were unable to release the paper after Volkswagen won a case in the high court to ban its publication. The research team discovered car manufacturers including Audi, Citroën, Fiat, Honda and Volvo, as well as Volkswagen, had models that were vulnerable to "keyless theft" because a device designed to prevent the vehicles from being stolen could be disabled easily. After years of formal and infor- mal negotiations, Volkswagen has agreed to the publication of the paper after accepting the authors' proposal to remove one sentence from the original manuscript. Garcia and his colleagues Roel Verdult and Bariş Ege, from Rad- boud University in Nijmegen, said they found several weaknesses in the Swiss-made immobiliser sys- tem, called Megamos Crypto. The device works by preventing the en- gine from starting when the corre- sponding transponder – embed- ded in the key – is not present. But the researchers showed it was possible to listen to signals sent be- tween the security system and key, making the vehicles vulnerable to "close-range wireless communica- tion" attacks. "Our attacks require close range wireless communication with both the immobiliser unit and the transponder," the team says in the paper. "It is not hard to imagine real-life situations like valet parking or car rental where an adversary has access to both for a period of time. It is also possible to foresee a setup with two perpetrators, one interacting with the car and one wirelessly pickpocketing the car key from the victim's pocket." The computer scientists had wanted to publish the paper at the Usenix Security Symposium in Washington DC in 2013, but the court imposed an interim injunction. Volkswagen com- plained that its publication could "allow someone, especially a so- phisticated criminal gang with the right tools, to break the secu- rity and steal a car". The researchers argued they were "responsible, legitimate ac- ademics doing responsible, legit- imate academic work" and their aim was to improve security for everyone. The RAC said electronic se- curity systems have improved car security as vehicle theft has fallen 70% in 40 years. However, the overall decrease hides a rise in electronic hacking of vehicles, which featured in four out of 10 car thefts in London last year. Vehicles' vulnerability was re- cently exposed by researchers from the University of Califor- nia, San Diego, who hacked a car, remotely activated its windscreen wipers and disabled its brakes, all via text message. In July, Fiat Chrysler announced it was recalling about 1.4million cars and trucks in the US after hackers took control of a Jeep over the internet. Toyota Malta For more information contact: Michael Debono Limited 0GLQD5RDGĽHEEXã 7HO VDOHV#WR\RWDFRPPW ZZZWR\RWDFRPPW Toyota Gozo Showroom 0ãDUU5RDG ;HZNLMD;:.*R]R 7HO JJV#WR\RWDFRPPW 5 year WARRANTY DEBONO F I N A N C E ONLY 5.5% VARIABLE RATE OVER 6 YEARS GM to settle criminal case over faulty ignition switches GENERAL Motors Co has agreed to sign a deferred-prosecution agreement to end a U.S. govern- ment investigation into its han- dling of an ignition-switch defect linked to 124 deaths, a source told Reuters. The company will pay less than the $1.2 billion that Toyota Motor Corp paid to resolve a similar case, the source said. The exact amount was not immediately known. The deal means GM will be charged criminally with hiding the defect from regulators and in the process defrauding consum- ers, but the case will be put on hold while GM fulfils terms of the deal, the source said. GM also recalled more than 30 million vehicles in North America in 2014 to fix a wide array of de- fects. Federal prosecutors based in New York have been investigat- ing GM since at least March 2014 over the company's disclo- sures to regulators about vehicles equipped with the faulty ignition switches. The ignition switches on Chev- rolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other GM vehicles could cause their engines to stall, which in turn prevented air bags from deploying during crashes. Also, power steering and power brakes did not operate when the ignition switch unexpectedly moved from the "on" position.