Now Comes “Car Hacking”

A post from Foley & Lardner looks at recent reports on security issues arising from the “Internet of things,” including a report entitled Tracking & Hacking: Security & Privacy Gaps Put American Drivers at Risk, released last month from the office of U.S. Senator Ed Markey. The basic paradigm for the Internet of things is the same, no matter the product. It involves “a device, running software, capable of collecting and receiving data, and that can connect to the internet.” With cars in particular, many questions arise. Among them: Can the manufacturer identify hacking incidents, counter them, or provide patches that will fix them? Can consumers – who have proven to be only marginally capable of keeping up with patches for their computer devices – handle being thrown into another front in the hacker war? The security of the data, as opposed to the security of the device, is another whole area for possible mischief or larceny. And a third area – privacy – opens into yet another universe of concerns. Whose data is it, and who will have access to it?