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Auto industry trying to prevent cyber-attacks [Detroit Free Press]
[October 21, 2014]

Auto industry trying to prevent cyber-attacks [Detroit Free Press]


(Detroit Free Press (MI) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 21--The auto industry does not want to be the next segment under cyber attack.

So far, retailers have been the target of hackers because there are billions of dollars to be stolen. Cars are still difficult to hack -- thieves must physically get to the control units within the vehicles -- and there is no money to be had, said David Strickland, an attorney with Venable in Washington, D.C.



But the concern is terrorism, said Strickland, the former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Terrorists could take over the brains of vehicles and send them on nefarious missions.

"We need to jump on it now," Strickland told reporters today on the sidelines of the 2014 SAE Convergence conference at Detroit's Cobo Center.


To try to prevent attacks, automakers and NHTSA agreed a couple months ago to create a virtual Information Sharing Advisory Center that collects cyber threats and shares them. The center is being created now and will take a year or two to put together as a collaboration of NHTSA and the auto industry's trade associations which represent all 34 automakers.

It won't be easy. "You are fighting criminals," Strickland said.

But he is hopeful the auto industry has time because cars are not an obvious threat now. The concern is that as vehicles become more connected to mobile devices and information in the cloud, exposure will only grow and criminals may see the value in stealing information.

Strickland noted Tesla sent out a message via satellite to all vehicles to adjust the vehicle height and systems like General Motors' OnStar communicates directly with the vehicle.

"It is a huge issue for the industry," Strickland said. "The goal is to make it hard to get in (for hackers)." This morning Strickland was on a panel that discussed the challenges of using mobile devices in vehicles in today's world which has 25 billion devices connected in some way.

"Technology is a big enabler and people want experiences," said James Buczkowski, a technical engineer with Ford.

Ford conducts surveys as part of its efforts to find the right technology for its devices and mistakes are made along the way.

Buczkowski talked about the success of the Sync system introduced in the Ford Focus in 2007 which was a huge consumer hit and put the automaker on consumers' radar screens. But the next-generation MyFord Touch system that replaced knobs and buttons with touch screen functions and had some software glitches led to customer dissatisfaction and low quality scores.

"Like many Silicon startups you go through learning cycles. So it was important," he said.

Ford has been continually improving the system since and restoring some buttons with each vehicle redesign.

Buczkowski said the next generation must be more personal, with systems that know more about the consumer and pull down pertinent information from the cloud to the car.

Marios Zenios, Chrysler vice president of Global Software Quality, said everyone embraces technology, but not everyone wants to experiment with it. As a result, Chrysler's Uconnect system tries to appeal to those who just want it to work with no effort as well as the tech-savvy who want to test its capabilities.

Technology also means the march to autonomous driving.

NHTSA embraces the advances in driver-assist technologies as a way to prevent the 33,000 fatalities a year from car crashes.

"The right level of automation is to be determined," Strickland said.

About 90% of car crashes have an element of human error, Strickland said. But a failure will happen with a machine. Even if autonomous vehicles only have a 2% failure rate, it will not be acceptable, despite being a huge statistical improvement.

Google's autonomous car could be perceived as a threat, but it is moving the market forward, said Dan Loop of supplier Freescale Semiconductor who noted suppliers must be even further ahead as they develop hardware and software that can be used in vehicles.

"Google is pushing the boundaries," said Chris Thomas, founder of Fontinalis Partners.

When it comes to technology, "what seems impossible today might be acceptable tomorrow," said Chris Gerdes, associate professor at Stanford University.

Contact Alisa Priddle: 313-222-5394 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @AlisaPriddle ___ (c)2014 the Detroit Free Press Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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