DARPA Engineers hack a Toyota Prius

Two security experts in the US have demonstrated taking control of two popular models of car, while someone else was driving them, using a laptop.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of revealing their research at security conference Defcon in Las Vegas in August, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek said they hoped to raise awareness about the security issues around increasingly computer-dominated car control.

"At the moment there are people who are in the know, there are nay-sayers who don't believe it's important, and there are others saying it's common knowledge but right now there's not much data out there," said Mr Miller, a security engineer at Twitter.

"We would love for everyone to start having a discussion about this, and for manufacturers to listen and improve the security of cars."

Their work, funded by the Pentagon's research facility Darpa, has so far received a mixed reaction from the manufacturers themselves.

<snip>

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23443215