Kaspersky Daily editor Brian Donohue sat down with Dr. Charlie Miller, the notorious Apple hacker and Twitter security engineer, and Chris Valasek, the director of security intelligence at IOActive, for a short podcast. Valasek and Miller accomplished a rare feat last year by making normal human beings care about computer security, if only for a few minutes.
Audio Player
They did this by hacking into the electrical control units (read: onboard computers) in a Toyota Prius and injecting codes in the controller area network bus (read: the network that connects the onboard computers). By replicating the codes that the ECUs deploy to initiate all sorts of safety, crash detection, and convenience features – like automatic braking, seatbelt locking, and parking assist – they managed to make the car swerve while in motion, tighten the driver’s seatbelt, and even disable the brakes, a trick that caused Miller to crash into the back wall of his garage.
You can find great videos of Miller and Valasek’s exploits all over the Internet.
Tips