WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Researchers have shown that these interfaces can be exploited remotely through short-range and long-range wireless channels, even via Bluetooth units that enable hands-free cell phone use to take control over safety-critical functions such as the brakes, the GAO noted.
"Modern vehicles contain multiple interfaces… that leave vehicle systems, including safety-critical systems, such as braking and steering, vulnerable to cyberattacks," the report stated on Monday.
Twenty three specialists consulted by the GAO agreed that wireless attacks, such as those exploiting vulnerabilities in vehicles' built-in cellular-calling capabilities, would pose the largest risk to passenger safety.
"Such attacks could potentially impact a large number of vehicles," the report pointed out.
The attacks could access targeted vehicles "from anywhere in the world," the GAO added.
Two US industry associations have been leading the effort to establish an Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to collect and analyze intelligence and share threat and vulnerability information with one another, the report acknowledged.
