When you hear that someone hacked into a car, you might think that this is someone trying to get you scared. This should not be treated lighted since there are more and more cars being connected. Being able to hack into a car through a mobile app is increasing the chances of sneaking and taking off with the car. With the recent development, the British security firm believes that this is a serious vulnerability in the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid.
Pen Test Partners LLP is the British security firm that discovered this weakens in the Mitsubishi Outlander. They found the method used to connect the car to the owner to be very interesting. Since most of the mobile apps use the internet as the medium through which the owner communicates to the car, Mitsubishi is offering a direct connection to the WIFI through a weak factory password and hackers can easily access the settings to the vehicle and manipulate the system or get away with the vehicle.
When the company was able to get into the vehicle’s network, they were able to alter the battery charge settings, manipulate the fiddle with the HVAC controls and also turned the headlights on. One of the most worrying activities was when they disabled the alarm system which is risky. Let’s say a criminal was outside the vehicle and they were able to do this, they will be able get in the car and probably get off in it.
It might be hard for one to get off in the car but the possibility of disabling the car alarm system is as easy as sniffing out a network. Until this issue is fixed, it is advised that you turn off the car’s WIFI or put it into sleep mode. This will make you lose the mobile access to the car but this will also keep off everyone else who might want to hack into your car’s system.