Uber Turns to Security Researchers For Help

August 31, 2015 at 1:54 pm By

Uber is working towards fixing the flaws in their in-car technology and they are turning to two security researchers. Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek are now pretty well-known for hacking into Chrysler’s Uconnect system and putting it on display for the security world at Black Hat and DefCon security conferences.

“The hiring of Miller and Valasek is likely part of an effort to ensure that Uber’s autonomous vehicle development work remains secure and may be partially prompted by the findings of the UCSD researchers Ian Foster, Andrew Prudhomme, Karl Koscher, and Stefan Savage,” according to Arstechnica.

“The group presented research at the Usenix Security conference two weeks ago that showed a telematics device used by Uber and some auto insurers could be compromised to take remote control of systems in a similar fashion to Miller and Valasek’s hack of the Jeep.”

The researchers made a big name for themselves by exposing flaws in the design of Chrysler’s Uconnect system where they could hack into and control targeted systems on the vehicles. They demonstrated the amount of power they had over the vehicle by shutting down the throttle of one of the vehicles they hacked.

Their hack even started somewhat of a trend that spiraled into other companies having their own vulnerabilities pointed out. Tesla was among some of these automotive companies who were forced to revamp aspects of their systems in order to keep them safe from cyber-auto hackers.

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